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Group Photo.

By Oladejo Abdullah Feranmi

PROMPT—I am grateful for ...

On days when grief was so hard

to scrub off time's face,

I crawled into the mug shot

where happiness tore the cheeks

to a smile of clenching teeth


caging the grief on the inside

the tongue coating it to shimmer

like a brand-new ambulance.

We carried our dead on the inside

and rattled our prints on the shores of life


hoping to get there on time.

I didn't crawl into the photo on time.

I didn't smile on time.

But the image caught my lips curl a surf

at the edges. The image caught my lips curl.


 

Oladejo Abdullah Feranmi is a DVM student at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Pursuing his enthusiasm for poetry, he has his works published/forthcoming in Poet's choice, Echo mag, and a few more. He reads at the sea glass lit and edits for the incognito.

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