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IT’S A FAMILIAR PLACE HERE

1/2/2022

4 Comments

 
By Olachi Angel Iwehee
Picture
This diner is a quiet place of roses,
petals, promises and everything with flowery scents. 
Placed on each table housing happy pairs of 
persons are candle glasses bearing lavender flames.
 
Dinner is a sweet slow course served in three-course. 
The waiters are bright polite beings, speaking in polished tones. 
It’s a familiar place here.
Appetizers roll into the main course. Champagne comes in handy.
Our fingers find one another across the table and
weave themselves; one into the other.
 
He proposes a toast; I second it. A clink of both glasses. 
We sip the velvet liquid. Its sharp sweetness takes 
a leisurely tour to the depth of my stomach. 
More wine. It’s a familiar place here.
 
His blue eyes across the table lights up the night some more. 
Slow, sensual chatter fills the large hall to the brim. 
Across the table, he is saying something about special nights 
and special persons and flowery scents.
 
Somewhere between dessert and our exchange of breaths, 
we settle into our surreal fantasy. The voices around us get dim. 
Our voices find their owners. “I love you,” he says. 
I smile and say his words back to him. 
We breathe in through each other’s nostrils. 
It’s a familiar place here.
“You’re my dream, fantasy and reality,” he breathes out 
and I feel his breath on my skin. I smile again. 
It’s a familiar place here.
Here, dreams are reality and reality is a dream.
Writer's Biography
Picture
Olachi Angel Iwehee is a Nigerian poet and storyteller, passionate about telling African stories. Her works explore diversified themes, cutting across love, romance, introspection, and an exposition of human complexities.

She is currently a student of Law at the University of Calabar, Calabar. She bakes and enjoys playing the piano.
4 Comments
Mimi
13/2/2022 10:44:43 am

I half hearted expected it to end badly lol. It's great to read about love in a positive light.Beautiful story with beautiful words.I hope i find my dream reality and soon. Great job!

Reply
Ugochukwu Anadị
28/2/2022 10:50:03 am

The musicality of this poem is one that blows a sound sucker like me away. Olachi's use of repetition, "it's a familiar place here" is one that adds lots of beauty to an already poetic rendition of love. I can imagine the lovers floating into their "surreal fantasy" and the single bloke like me can only imagine what unfolds there.

Olachi has an ears for sounds and I have this bias for such poems. Excellent! Excellent piece.

Reply
Alice Adeyi
28/2/2022 11:56:46 am

It's so easy for us to stay on familiar grounds and not dive into unfamiliar territory.
It so easy for us to wish that our dreams become a reality.
Wish that our realities are only a dream that we can wake up from.
But life is not just a dream and it will not always be a familiar place

Reply
Yetunde O.
28/2/2022 02:42:07 pm

Beautiful. I would always cheer for a poem that is easy to read. This is one of those. Each line linked to the next.

I liked that the writer was descriptive and narrative with the ambience. She was smart to let us meet her lover in the later part of the poem. My only issue here was that the writer described more of the environment (the diner), than she did for the partner. Altogether, this was well-written.

Reply



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  • Publications
    • Anthologies >
      • ETB Anthology
      • AEAnthology
      • WAD Anthology
      • CBS Anthology
      • 2020 Why I Write
      • 2019 Why I Write
    • Interviews
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  • Submit
    • Submit to Us
    • Nigerian Writers Database
  • Fellowship
    • Writing Fellowship
    • Advancement Fellowship
  • Contests
    • Monthly Bookstore Gift-card
    • Annual Poetry Contest
    • SWAP >
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  • About
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