Thursday, January 16, 2025

Happy Helen Folásadé Adu Day!

Is your love HyperQBic?

Does it have colorpuntal pearls like a ghost poem? 

Here we go again. 

I’m not thirsty, you’re thirsty  



AN IDEA OF IMPROVISATION 

AS MUCH ADU ABOUT NOTHING

“Didn’t I tell you what I believe,

did somebody say that . . .”

Sade



Ifemi, I believe 

it was only this morning

that her whispers

filled my ears

like a bowl 

of virgin olives

while her fingers—

half flame, half feather—

counted every curl

on the back of my neck.

But all moons wane

and who traces

 her phases of the moon

tattoo now?


And perhaps not wane

as in failure

but something else 

in the key of  F  

which I hum 

under my breath

until her cabernet lipstick

sips me once more

like a sommelier

or her manicured nails

re-press their crescents

into the midnight sky 

of my back?


Hummingbirds

hover over petals

for the beady paradise 

of nectar—

is it a rhyme 

in F Minor 

if the nutty aroma

of almond blossoms 

flails to stop me

from being spotted 

like a Luna moth 

by the halo 

of her porch light?


Oh, freckled cheeks of Jesus,

I may now grasp

why Shakespeare claimed

 Cupid kills

some with arrows,

some with traps,

 because who knows

which angle of light

 veils or unveils

what blooms

in her irises?


If I dissolve 

into the blue flame 

of her breath, 

would I subsist

as breath, 

or simply burn?

Is it a ditty

in the key of F

—as a saxophone

curls into cursive—

that a fool for roses

must be

a fool for rain? 


I don’t believe

she meant

a love like hours won’t last

even as the ache 

braided into her ponytail

swung from that first flame 

of dopamine 

to our last adieu. 


Should our eyes meet again, 

I won’t underestimate

her wrist’s brassy passion 

for prayer beads

& police bracelets.


Ifemi, how long

can I believe before the traces  

of sandalwood & citrus

in her hair

begin to settle 

what every scent

tries to say about waning

as a way of staying?