to aminat, for chasing darkness out of me

By Hassan Usman

I still don’t know how you, a star, fell from
the sky into my body. 
How you knew there was gloom lurking under 
the blackness of my skin. 
I caught myself saying I didn’t deserve this light, 
this love, this rebirth;
for you, in your luminousness, had chased
every piece of darkness out of me. 
I held love in your eyes, not just love but also light
kept holding me back. 

You shawled me around your back & led me to where 
joy settles in the morning. 
& gently, gently, gently, you coloured my footprints 
with grace. 
See, it’s only the year that ends, I’ll keep wearing its miracles 
& memories like a golden bracelet
—allowing those magical moments we had adorn me. 
So I still remember it all, those days you gathered my tears &
morphed them into a sea with sparkling waters, 
those nights your voice bloomed the withering roses in my heart, 
those months in isolation, & how you still reached for me in
the dreams. 
Now, 365days gone, I sit close to your heart, writing you this poem.

Writer's Biography

​Hassan Usman, pen-named Billiospeaks, is 2/4 of Next Generational Poets. He studies Counselor Education at the University of Ilorin, Kwara State. He sees poetry as a way of relieving stress and filling up emptiness.

​His works have appeared in The Shallow Tales Review, Write The World, WattNigeria, and elsewhere. He enjoys listening to Nigerian street music and exploring the fashion world.

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