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"Untitled" by Photocitizen via pixabay


​by Abdulrazaq Salihu

Winner: 2022 Poetry Award

I gave a brother in Islam my sweat glands and
Sebaceous glands and a covering of hair by the road.

Wine and gingerbread cooked in chlorine,
The body screams in glass wallpapers the theory of life

And fig is date with a stench of macromolecules covering earth
A chest cracks and the atmosphere is snowy again,

Cells; not the simplest form pain can be,
My hands, carry the aura of a damp windowpane

Painting a silhouette red; my skin is leather shell
Of liquefied chromosomes, plutonium in a throat,

A brother swallows chaos and lays to rest,
Glucose plus oxygen and I’m growing towards the breaking Dawn

This brother steals my faith and his fate is now
My Qadr wrapped in a Qada’a that I have never seen

He swipes through my glass skin with fingers,
Equal of length-left side—left-right side—right

And all the omens of a kite on fire are owls with my eyes
And brown transformations of heavens glow, tipsy,

Blocked, breaking colours of grief by the
Rose lip and all are soon kisses no more.


​​
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Abdulrazaq (he/him) is a seventeen-year-old Nigerian poet who has been published nationally and internationally in many journals. He won the Nigerian Poetry Prize for Teen Authors and the 2022 Splendors of Dawn Poetry Foundation Poetry and Short Story Contest. Twitter @Arazaqsalihu | Instagram @abdulrazaq._salihu 
​
This poem originally appeared on February 12, 2022 in Arts Lounge Magazine.
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MASKS Literary Magazine is sponsored by the Columbia College Chicago Library and was founded as part of the Aesthetics of Research Program-an ongoing series of exhibits, events, and other shenanigans dedicated to exploring the role that libraries play in artistic process, creative community building, and resource-sharing in the arts. 
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  • Featured
  • Issue
  • Interviews
    • Melissa Meier
    • Miya Turnbull
    • Molly Yingling
    • Kate Wisel
  • Submissions
    • Guidelines
    • Contests
  • About
    • Masthead
    • Our Mission
  • Buy