Cliché - Jide Badmus

Each time I walk by,

I hear the stream sing

The same song as it

Washes the earth beneath &

Splashes against rocks

& pebbles in its path.

Each time we make love,

Our bodies become water

Seeking a miracle—of gourds

& calabashes—flowing into

Mouths of the gods of lust.

Each time we go to war,

We make love to destruction &

Bring beauty to its knees. We

Wreck innocence & shatter trust.

We embrace a lifetime of nightmares.

Each time a child is born,

He mourns the beginning of his end

While our teeth dance around bonfires.

Life is a cocktail—sweet, sour & insipid.

Living is cliché—dying, the same!

Bio:

Jide Badmus is inspired by beauty and destruction; he believes that things in ruins were once beautiful. He explores sensuality and healing.

Jide’s works have appeared or are forthcoming in The Shore, Disquiet Arts, African Writer, Dream Noir Arts, elsewhere. He writes from Lagos, Nigeria.