i am an instrument of joy. this poem caresses everywhere the body longs for softness, plasters every bruise,
mends broken hearts, folds them into a bundle of miracle.
call me by the many names of joy. mirth, gay bird, glee. let misery watch and walk off like a cock eyeing grains in a corked glass.
it is a new year. with no whimper, i yield the weight that clipped my wings. i travel light,
pull out the cartridge of my memories, wipe till 80% is gone. i want to roam a new country without my head
hanging from the void of yesterday. i withdraw my fingers poking and pricking the past.
i sing aloud, tell the world it knows nothing about this new human plying its roads.
it's a new season, leap with me. i am the calendar’s date.
Damilola Omotoyinbo, Frontier XIX, is a Nigerian Creative Writer. A Fellow of the Ebedi International Writers' Residency. She has work published or forthcoming in Ake Review, New Feathers Anthology, Olongo Africa, Brittle paper, Agbowó, Nigerian Tribune Newspaper and elsewhere. Damilola studied Biochemistry, she tweets @_Damilola_O.