The sun is my only friend
The Ikigai that wakes me up
And shows me the way out
Of my gloomy, lethargic room.
The fitness trainer who taught me
About losing the world’s weight
On my burdened shoulders.
And when my body glows
With beads of sweat, the sun shows me
Tomorrow’s beautiful reflection on my skin.
Tukur Ridwan (He/Him) writes from Lagos, Nigeria. Author of A Boy’s Tears on Earth’s Tongue (Authorpedia, 2019) and The Forgiveness Series (Ghost City Press, 2022), he won the Brigitte Poirson Monthly Poetry Contest (March 2018). His poems were shortlisted in the Bridgette James Poetry Competition (2025), the Eriata Oribhabor Poetry Prize (2020), and published in Afrocritik, Kelp Journal, ArtisansQuill, Kalahari Review, Cordite Review, and elsewhere. He loves black tea, sometimes coffee. Twitter/IG @Oreal2kur