S. Abdulwasi’h Olaitan’s poem: u kiyo


Note: [U kiyo] * Japanese(n) living in the moment, detached from the bothers of life. the floating world.

sometimes, i want to float aimlessly like cloud and live a long life 

but my mother said: one cannot always live as he desires. i want 


to die here as a pianist, exhume the burden 

breaths_ enveloped in melodies but, i gave my music away 


to mask my incapacitation. i know one cannot coerce 

the gentle hands of destiny, but in this swoon moment detached 


from the bothers of life i exist, where birds rebelliously morph 

into adornments, ornamenting my wide hungry belly. existing 


in the instant when my lips turns into a giant balloon 

sufficient to say “as you journey through my gut on horseback 


may you find a secure passage ” but the voice never arrives.

i see bats hovering over my head


i smile. if only i have wings, let say i am able to see the 

world from a new look. if only i could fly, imagine being 


able to view the world from a different look. i shall tear down 

the wings of my grief. if only i could reach the infinite sky, grief; 


i will discard my griefs, then feel lighter again & float by like the sun 

setting on a summer's evening. to whatever method we try to heal yet 


somehow remains broken, a hotbed doll of bat settled within each other 

bats, within bats, within bats, within 


bats, within bats, until it's completed. this is 

to say every moment holds its own bile.


S. Abdulwasi’h Olaitan is a Nigerian introverted poet, a savant, graphics designer & essayist. He writes from a city 5,280 miles away from hell & a second close to haven “ilorin”. He is deeply devoted to God and lover of his parents & good tea. He is the author of the shortlisted chapbook “Life, An Objet D’art” (Arting Arena Poetry Chapbook Prize 2023), A runner-up winner for Prose Purple Writing Competition 2024 (Poetry category), Honorable Mention for Lit Shark’s 2024 March-April poem of the month and was a finalist for Chukwuemeka Akachi prize (2024). His works appear and are forthcoming on Believeau Books, Bare Hill Review, Pictura journal, Lit Shark, Pawners Paper, Carolina Muse, UGR,The Graveyard Magazine, Arts lounge, Eco punk literary, OPA, MMXVI, Avant Appalachia, Ta Adesa, Wordsmpire, Shooting Star, & elsewhere.

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