STRANDED IN THE DARK by Odunjo Azeez

Here’s my mind in the midst

Of thoughts that transfix the

Hearts like a martial artist’s fist

That thieves the breath. 

Like the woven web arresting 

The dirt as if it’s a criminal, 

My soul is captured in

The long throat of trilemma;

Unable to paddle forward

For there lies a sighted sinister

Neither can it soar backward—

For devils are now having a fiesta—

Nor remain in the cold arm

Of the violent wave hungry

To turn turtle, till they buy the farm, 

The soared ship of chivalry. 

I rest my head on the bosom 

Of He that hearkens the lament

Of His servant and blooming blossom 

He plants in his heart.