Martins Deep

Martins Deep (he/him) is an Urhobo poet living in Kaduna, Nigeria. He is a photographer, digital artist, and currently a student of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He is a Best of The Net finalist, 2022. His most recent works have appeared, or are forthcoming, in Magma Poetry, FIYAH, Lolwe, 20.35 Africa: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, Barren Magazine, and elsewhere. He tweets @martinsdeep1

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Martins Deep

it is a windless evening in april/ & night drinks my exhalations /in my palms are corpses of fireflies as i sprawl/ here, my aching back reclined /on the breast/ of a half-timbered wall/ above me, the glorious reincarnations of fireflies /mostly with autopsy reports/ “a child’s curiosity” / to steal into a child’s body/ is to be granted magic/ to breathe in wonder/ it is to want eyes /that mirror gods too perfectly, they flutter by, in bodies of/ butterflies calling you by your poison /beyond the cliff