[content note: pedophilia]
Take it this way, this is a bullet from a gunshot
we have been evading, how a boy was stuffed
into the throat of a young woman’s arousal,
a boy fetched for throat, chop down feelings,
what do we say about this clawed future?
This is a thing, scarce as Christmas day,
once in a whole 365 days. But who made
this undone examination? These fingers
that hold the path to Sodom walk down
the bodies of an innocent boy & his future
becomes scarred. Why do you feed a boy
from the chalice of disaster & build a
communion of fire with a soft wood?
a mother nurtures her marshmallow into a
citadel & another mother nurtures him into
a miserabilist — & a miniature devil arises
from his carnal knowledge. Fears become
fossilized on his thoughts while the world
takes another turnout, a new ache bookmarked
in his body. What type of fire eats the cauldron
& its content? & the sycamore of his confidence
is reduced to ashes. Nurture another boy into your
redemption, o pedophile. You, a moth chewing
down the offing of a voyage.
Abdulkareem Abdulkareem, Frontier III, writes from Nigeria. He won the University of Ilorin S.U. Writers Competition (Poetry Category) 2022. He was also on the shortlist for the Vallum Poetry Award, 2022, also won second place of the World Voices Contest. His works appear and are forthcoming in POETRY, Lolwe, SAND Journal, Qwerty Magazine, Harbor Review, South Florida Poetry Journal, The Shore, Rough Cut Press, West Trade Review, Shallow Tales Review, Claw and Blossom, Brittle Paper, Orion's Belt, & elsewhere. He reads poetry for Frontier Poetry & Agbowó.