Rooftop Monologue by Praise Osawaru
after Taylor Byas
I'm never sheltering musings of dying, only disconcerted, incessantly, by the thought of accomplishing, like an unsettling meal rumbling in the chamber of my insides. See, the sun is
rolling off the sky’s shoulder, melting the blanketing blue into pink cotton. Blackbirds ride the air, stars are peering out. I’m here, feet kissing the edge, hoping God dispatches a myriad of
angels to apprehend me from gravity’s clutch if I tumble. No, I’m not falling over. I won’t
validate their thought— that only cowards dive headfirst into the arms of the grim reaper. They do
not fathom the underlying insanity of my anxiety. The arduous thing is to wake up without sleeping. Only people, unbothered about life, dwindle into a dreamscape. The rest of us
chain our souls to the bed & speculate if a drowning wave convoys (the arrival of)
tomorrow & wrecks any gathering of glee.
october 1st, 2020
Praise Osawaru (he/him) is a writer and poet of Bini descent. He's a Best of the Net nominee with works appearing/forthcoming in Blue Marble Review, FERAL, Ghost Heart Lit, Glass Poetry, Ice Floe Press, Kalahari Review, Rising Phoenix Review, and elsewhere. He was shortlisted for the Babishai 2020 Haiku Award and the Nigerian Students Poetry Prize 2020. An undergrad at the University of Benin, he's a Virgo who loves the strange and speculative. You can find him on Instagram/Twitter: @wordsmithpraise.