When I met you, you told me I was the only one in your life,

I laughed and asked if you thought I was a fool,

You smiled and whispered in my ears till my body was filled with your truths.

I took you to my cradle and showed you where my mother’s knee kissed the ground,

You promised the trees that bore me that you will never leave me,

they asked for a sign,

You showed them the orb burning in your heart.

I wore you like a prize and danced for the world to see,

they came, their head filled with nightmares and their lips ready for enchantment,

You rose before they could inflict us,

And sent them the way they came,

We became their tale,

a story of two worlds rolled into one, immune to pain and inseparable.

You became a god and I became your temple,

Memories grew in our shadow, your name became my song,

On lonely nights tucked away in my bed your voice, your voice from the phone,

a stream of calmness always washes through me, healing all pain.

I was born with a void in my world, you became a light daring all darkness to a match,

I wrote endless poems

I thought our story would last an eternity, but fate, jealous of my joy,

stole you and left me hollow,

They say you are in a good place now Feranmi, but where is a better place than my arms?

I was born with a void in my world, you became a light daring all darkness to a match,

I wrote endless poems trying to call your presence again,

but the words plunge me deeper into the darkness you pulled from.

Your mother fell sick last week and I went to sit by her,

She retold stories about her childhood as fever took her bits by bits,

I was leaving when she called me and whispered into my ears:

“ Omo mi, it’s four years already, what are your plans, you need to move on”.

I wept when I got home,

How long can a bird leave without flying?

A piece of me went six feet, how can I bring it back?

“ You need to learn how to forget, try to focus on other things in your life”, a therapist said.

I laughed till my voice cracked, how can I forget someone who lives in my world?

How can I forget someone who lives in my dreams every night?

I met someone yesterday and he looked like you,

he told me the magic you whispered in my ears, the first time we met,

he made the promise you planted in my heart,

In my ears, I heard the cold legs of fate walking towards me,

Should I tell this young bird that the last person who made my body tingle died when I believed my world was made?

I am about to embark on a new journey,

I am scared but hopeful for a journey just like the world we built together,

I promise your chapter will never be closed, Feranmi, as I open a new one.