Because we did not understand the cruelty
Of the world, we gave our hearts to strangers.
The softness of our palms, the raging loneliness
In the gap between our teeth, how the wind,
In its music, caresses the skin of despair,
How on lonely nights like these, we watch
Men fallout from sunsets, voices stuck in their
Throats and none of them wanted a life bigger
Than the stretching of a simple sentence.
Small as we were, we knew what magic came
From the mouth of our mothers, we knew how
Much kindness the world needed to fill its pulse
With tenderness. On nights like these, in the small
City of villages bent into the darkness of things,
We will hold our hands, time interlinked in the beats
Of our hearts like the slow music of waters touching
The silky edges of thirsty throat, like light bursting
Into an indigo of every glitter not gold, we will
Hold ourselves, your fate in mine, my destiny in yours
Like strangers in a broken country, like beautiful stars
Destined to touch the rusts of silence and make it music.
Magdalene Agweven
Magdalene Agweven is a Nigerian poet and writer whose first book is billed for release in Q1 of 2025. She grew up on African folklore and keenly developed a knack for penning poems and weaving stories, something that has remained a strong point even in her career as a teacher. Her poetry is vast, but in fiction, she majorly writes children’s stories, although she is also big on speculative fiction bothering on African jujuism. Her influences include Toni Morrison, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nnedi Okorafor, Chinua Achebe, and J.P. Clark.
