I die like waves
Daniel Orisaeke
Eleni Kotsira
On the shoreline, I watch
the sun — a halved-cut lemon
dip into the sea,
language written
in the dance of waves;
there is a pull and I succumb.
The man beside me murmurs a few words
about dying.
Iniquities,
like beads, jut out from my pores
before hands
drown me into a sea of lemonade.
I die like the waves.
A bitter-sweet enveloping — opaque & quiet
there is a pain before I see black.
I wonder if my tears segregate,
seeking absolution.
I resurrect a new creature — made whole
but the sourness lingers.
This poem was first published in the Poetry Column of Nigerian NewsDirect.
Daniel Orisaeke (he/him) is a poet and a dental student in the University of Nigeria, Enugu. He’s a lover of evening strolls, music, rain, stargazing and the mystery of small things in the universe.
Meet the author: Daniel Orisaeke
an interview conducted by Otherwise fiction and non-fiction editor Niharika Pandit
