Radiant Colors —Sunday T. Saheed

Radiant Colors

By Sunday T. Saheed

today, I saw two boys fight. & as if words 

were gold, they cursed their parents & cruci-

fied them with hot tongues. The sun doesn’t 

shine here, I think. & perhaps, who would

know the essence of a mother like a boy

drenched by petals of rain waiting for God to

lazarus his mother, so she could shift the tomb 

she sleeps in & announce her awakening.

herein, everything I touch turns to red.

someone said it’s a sign that a withered

flower doesn’t shake its old age away. 

—not the magnolia, not the quince.

some days back, I thought solitary wasn’t 

a word in the lexicon —until my shadow 

I thought was with me disappears into the

aperture of my fears. Telephone rings,

the call disconnects —ding!

the roof of this house cracks on me,

& the murals on the wall fades off its texture.

someone said I should stretch my palms 

forth till I catch a company. A trickle of

rain fell on it but it drained through my 

fingers. A bolt of lightning hides herein

—but the lines on my palm absorbed its

light. There’s no pathway here.

I’ve learnt to put a smile to everything I say

now. So, when I’m asked to describe love,

I tell a story of my solitude, with garnished

cabbage.

Bio:

Sunday T. Saheed, the author of Rewrite The Stars, is a 17yr-old Nigerian writer and a Hilltop Creative Arts Foundation member. He was the 1st runner-up for the Nigerian Prize for Teen Authors, 2021. His works have appeared or are forthcoming on Rough Cut Press, Salamander Ink, Arts Lounge, SprinNG, Rigorous mag, Ice Floe Press, Pop The Culture Pill, Kissing Dynamite, Beatnik Cowboy, Trouvaille Review, Augment Review, Spirited Muse Press, Gyroscope, Giallo Lit, Open Skies Quarterly, Kalahari, Cajun Mutt, Open Leaf Press Review, Re Side, de Curated and others. He is also an asst. editor for The Nigeria Review (TNR). He was a finalist for the Wole Soyinka International Cultural Exchange, 2018. He can be read on linkfly.to/sundaysaheed or reached on Instagram @poetsundaysaheed or on @sundaytsaheed on Twitter