No! She Said Poem by Oludipe Samuel

Legs freeze jelly-numb! Breath watered to flakes
From a distant class, he longs,
Glued to a doubter’s dream, the image
Sought to crush his heart, to flash
The sore of his love back in icy waves;
Words sleek beyond players ranting,
Beyond passion imaginable…
But no, she said

Three comb teeth stung his hair –
Or aches they were…three sudden recalls
For his eyes were bare. Honey warmth
Searched the corners of his mind,
His fingers thrust brave to mask the vision
Of lost desires, slow torture of loneliness ghosts.
Still they came, damp squibs of a moment’s
Firm purpose
But no, she said

And he saw his hair was harsh,
Thunders broke from a thousand pores,
A prodigal smile crept beneath a charming face
Of twisted thoughts
Shots over shots, they tease. The romance strained.
Fears came heavy in his breath.
‘Keep on! ’ his watchers cried
But no, she said

What misses in me, the sincerity in my eyes?
Are you finer than Aphrodite?
Reserved for ocean beds of twinkling shells?
No, she said

But wait!
Count the flowing streets, whose bellies
Stretch with scattered hearts of the world…like hairs…
Those are the beauty from your windows,
Your stolen wants cast away…
‘No’s belched from life herself…
Your strength fades to doubt

But no, I say
Where lays your ease, the combs you launch
In the eye of bumps? Lone mortal
Your heart is moist fence on which billions breed.
Be returned to yourself, the universe has sprung
New shoulders of pride, awaits your no, life-alike

So no, you will say
I am no fragment of a broken heart,
A broken dream, a broken hair…
I am the heart, dream and hair –
The unique spot on the face of the earth