Baskadia

Self-baptism Without Waters

in the name of the love & of the human & of the beauty worship that’s just

yesterday

Eden was without a cathedral

or a mosque where a girl pays with a bloody

regalia appeasing bigots for blasphemy

yet the garden lovey-dovey grows wings

get behind me the custodians of a rusty wall

unblinking vow & confession

with you

i close the gap between Ebonyi bridge & Kaduna train track

North & South mother tongue

catechist & muezzin bible & quran

as i watch you from behind

the nightstand to worship

the maker of Kaduna—

tonight light up my night room into an effervescent dream with the lamplight

in your brilliant eyes

for beauty has no religion

_Gift