Ayei Ibiang
@ayeiibiang080407
1 year ago

CUTS AND STITCHES

I was tailored for poetry;
cuts and stitches
styled in unconventional fashion;
The nonconformity of seams and snips,
fabrics spun
and woven with every fibre of passion
The overlay of pain with purpose,
flesh-folds tacked into a dauntless look;
Strength whorled in strips from a writhing expression,
the twists and intrigues of an epic book

Yes I'm a 6-piece cloth slitted three each at the corners,
ripped by the claws of reality;
a cliffhanger stretched to the edges and borders
Choked by the paws of omens and premonitions,
jugular stifled by vices and clamps
My ingenuity penned into a
perfect story,
the proof that Aï wasn't just happenstance


I still bear on my body the scars of both process and time,
hooks and barbs latched onto my skin;
Torment yet salvation,
dragging me over the line so I'd win;
Gasping at the dead of finish,
my arteries burning out like a flame;
My heart, an offering,
the annals becoming acquainted with initials of my name

So with pride, I wear my story over a shoulder
like the finest of sashes,
a tale of survival
sketched by the brushsrokes of a thousand and one lashes
The lessons of the pruning knife,
carving pure genius against the whims of uncertainties and chances
Indeed I was tailored for poetry,
sewn to fit into the style of whatsoever the god of poem fancies




***



Written by: Ibiang, Ayei Okoi
Saturday, 11th December, 2021.
8:32pm
#Aï
#Nirclestories
#Poetry