Clement Abayomi
Should We Tell God to Create Us Again?
Void, deep, then water. & the world began with
a ritual of colours—first, a darkness too reckless
to name. At a point, green[ery] leapt up into the heaviness
of a headless wind &, soon, we were formed from a hybrid
of green words, green days, green lights, even green darkness
& everything green[ing] from the mouth of God. True, time
had no moving hands then, only the yawning mouth of the
sun, the nakedness of the moon, the sparkling of the stars
over skin, new like rain on unwalked earth. We have stood
to count seasons for many reasons. Sometimes for loss,
sometimes for gain. Sometimes for desires dangling
between dearth and death, as we bear the brunt of
brutalities wrecking innocent earth. & I’m asking
myself now: Should we tell God to create us again?
—perhaps this time, as trees, as rivers, as flowers,
as mountains, as hills, that we may feel the agony of green
destruction that ends life. We began with order but now, we
are ending with murder: we have blood-washed the purity of
earth that pillars our existence, pressed toxics into the belly
of the planet like ruthless punctures gnawed against brittle flesh.
Perhaps God should create us again as fire so we can help Him
wipe humanity away before the Armageddon.
Bio:
CLEMENT ABAYOMI is a Nigerian poet and short story writer. He has been published in Penned in Rage Literary Journal, African Writer Magazine, Poets Choice, Tendon Magazine, among others. Abayomi was longlisted for the Brigitte Poirson Literature Prize 2024 and emerged as the winner of both the ANAKwara Creative Writing Prize for Poetry and the Inaugural Bridgette James Poetry Competition in 2024.
