Ogada: Two Poems

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let me remember you

 

we mold differently,

teenage-fly hearts,

with phone calls we don’t want to end

what we don’t know how to do,

is walk away

 

i have known you

for introducing me to nature trails,

and each tickle of a touch

evokes the treks shared

 

that’s how I remember

—in the gaze of animals at orphanages

and

the gurgles of monkeys we fed

 

if the fears win,

will I flare-up?

if the edges no longer flame?

 

let me remember you,

like laughter;

—the soaking of rain and,

the flux of its lightning arcs

 

let me remember you,

in the eyes of the impalas,

racing to flirt

 

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caged

 

without reason,

in silence without

your touch for drums

 

the wall’s paints are in your nails,

and your knuckles are getting sore.

you know you have to beat it down

—it has to crumble

 

maybe it’s you and

the pain has grown to be a man,

who’s tough on change

he doesn’t want to leave?

you fight not to lose,

(the little boy has to live)

 

you might win and

not know the shade of victory.

when the boy stares into the water dish,

it mirrors what the world denied