ABDULMUEED
BALOGUN
Abdulmueed Balogun is a Nigerian Poet and an undergraduate at the University of Ibadan. He was selected to participate as a Scholar in the HUES Poetry Workshop for Spring 2021. He is a poetry reader at The Global Youth Review and was the runner up in the REFORM NAIJA writing contest "FREEWILL" in November, 2020. His poems have been published or are forthcoming in: Avalon Literary Review, AfroRep, Poesis Literary Journal, Headline Press and Poetry, Fevers of Mind and elsewhere. He tweets from: Abdmueed.
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GRACE
I call it grace, if a girl's chaste wall before turning five
remains unscathed, for the womb of this land
breeds paedophiles in thousands.
I call it grace, if my neighbor's son from an errand
returns without paying ransom to secure his soul
for this land is a saner nest for child rustlers.
I call it grace, if no household mourns before dusk
for elegy every second surges from the mouth of houses.
I call it grace, if no one, before noon
is tweeted missing, by the birds on Twitter
if no mutilated cadaver is discovered beside the bush
sprawling along the hem of highways, before the end of the week.
I will call it grace, again, again, and again
if my right hand concludes this poem
with its fingers, untampered.
I WANT TO LIVE, WHERE:
justice's print is bold and sunny,
voices, not veiled by the velvet of dread.
stars, not missiles tread the sky,
water, not blood nor bullets cascades from the eye of the firmament.
the coming of dawn heralds bliss
not war, nor a rat race for survival.
radio's mouth reels off news, free from bloodstains
from sorrow that grips the heart like a tick.
departure comes in ripe season,
while marveling at a lover's smile.
nights do not paint the portrait of afterlife
when slumber steers the wheel of soul.