Maze

By Aishat Yahkub

I’ll let my shadows trail behind, while you hold
my untethered form in this blue dark
sea of stars lapping gently at us
as the bored night rows our soulless bodies out
to shore & back, with the drifting tides
does it bother you when you hear the whispers?
the water will come to claim you, I know
& I’ll be left to my yawning, depthless dreams
at the wet, writhing foot of the river
in those dreams I trip over the stars,
taste their prepared night
the moon won’t stop singing behind
the clouds, doe–eyed children orbiting its bulb,
& I’m always running into the dusk, hunted
by something, haunted by something, faceless & urgent,
through fresh mud, the wet stench of goats in singing hills,
the voices & i will create another dance across this drowning
in the cavity of my nightmares, I puddle in sleep
paralysis, levitate in stubborn flight, my heart
in overdrive, still at the mercy of the dream’s haze,
journeying through its pink, twisted bowel
a poem is a dream maze, & I do not know my way out
of this fever dream, unfurling
in untold stories, translucent characters
lingering on, reaching, grasping at the wisps of morning.

BIO:
Aishat Yahkub is a Nigerian creative, poet and medical student. A BOTN nominee and finalist for the 2024 Akachi Chukwuemeka Prize, her poems are published/forthcoming in Brittle paper, Agbowó, Fieryscribe, Peppercoast Lit, Poetry Sango-Ota, Fullhouse Lit, Fantasy Magazine and elsewhere. Her works seek to explore all that haunts the body. She practices stillness and escapes into dreams. Tweets @AishatYahkub.