Strings hold things or tie them up,
they also vibrate, often sounding off,
in places where they are shadows of a smile
stretch like wrinkles when skins crumble
as rumpled sheets do after long restless nights,
reminding me of grandmother’s tales
of alternating muses blowing ambiguous metaphors;
our rehearsal songs are simple similes,
of fixated emotions on mannequins
exhausted in plastic expressions,
it is a charade, it’s all they do;
What if my ribs sing striking chords
similar to sounding guitar strings,
every stroke of a finger on tight lines,
my chest expands, reverberating echoes
trapped in empty chambers,
looking for ways to escape to freedom
releasing cries nothing short of musicals,
these are harmonic tunes of indistinguishable pain,
disguised in joy like caffeine hiding in nuts.
Umar Saleh Gwani is an Information & Communications Technology consultant based in Bauchi, Nigeria, his hobbies include Poetry, Digital Photography and outdoor sports. He is the author of Thunderclap (ISBN: 978-978-56200-4-7), a poetry collection published by AMAB Books Nigeria (2018), and his poems have been featured by online publishers like Konya Shams Rumi, JADEN Magazine, Silver Birch Press and Praxis online Magazine.