in the scale of things, i am a feather plucked from the wings of
grief, motioning towards a citadel of zero quietude. forgive me— i’ve
tried stanzaring laughter into a poem & watering seeds into a garden
of lullabies; but— at the mention of my name, everything beautiful
dies, as if to mean, beauty is not for me. in the last poem i wrote, i
danced love into the pages, but it took the back door & seethed into
oblivion— when they say love is in the air, i vaccinate my mind &
barricade
every opening in my body. in the scheme of things, i am a dagger
in
the
chest
of
beauty.
Flourish Joshua, Frontier XX, has appeared in London Grip Poetry, miniskirt magazine, East French Press, Olongo Africa, Sledgehammer Lit Mag, Poetry Column NND, Ghost City Review, Brittle Paper, Blue Marble Review, Bluebird Review, No Contact, the Indianapolis Review, Agbowó, the minnesota review, Magma Poetry & elsewhere. He is the poetry editor for LERIMS Quarterly, associate poetry editor for miniskirt magazine & a Best of the Net nominee. He tweets from @fjspeaks.