Quest

By Eniola Abdulroqeeb Arowolo

after Notes on Ambition by Ernest Ogunyemi

The soil once vegetated by luscious ferns
Is now riddled with summer heat & dry stumps.

Mutable music of seasons rends me
The essence of life—steadied for fruition,

Seeking rudder for riches until Grace spills
From its potent cup.

Jubilant moths swamping the lantern never
Contemplate the wick losing its red filament,

Yet their ennui arrives as the light
Fizzles out, the same way pungent smell

Of decay escapes the jarred room of the old drunk
Upstairs, found dead in his rickety armchair—

Wrecked by alcohol & cigarettes that once
Permitted him the rejoice of a folly.

Death is as evident as birth.
The precation: lead me not into the threshold

Of my Maker with regrets. Lighten the yoke.
Rid my garden of anxieties.

BIO:

Eniola Abdulroqeeb Arowolo is a writer from Nigeria. He was shortlisted for the Inaugural Chukwuemeka Akachi Prize, and received a honourable mention in 2024 Bacopa Literary Review Poetry Contest. His works have appeared—or are forthcoming—in 2024 Small Fictions anthology, Bacopa Literary Review , Weganda Review, The Republic, Afapinen, 4faced Liar, 20: 35 Africa, Ake Review, ANMLY, and elsewhere. He currently serves as a Poetry Contributing Editor for Barren Magazine and Poetry Reader for Chestnut Review.