Taste

By Ajise Vincent

since i tasted the breath
of god on your skin.
my candor gesticulates
like church bells
adoring plumes of memories.
cacophonies of silence
became a sour grape
on the nudity of my throat.
& all i see in you is a luminance:
the glory in the eyes of a botanist
who just discovered
that daffodils become butterflies
when they dine with death.

Writer’s Biography

Ajise Vincent is an Economist based in Lagos, Nigeria. His works have appeared in Jalada, Chiron Review, Asian Signature, Ann Arbor Review, Yellow Chair Review, Bombay Review, Birmingham Arts Journal, The Cadaverine, Saraba, Brittle Paper, Sentinel Quarterly, Ake Review and Elsewhere. He is a recipient of the Eriata Oribhabor Poetry Prize 2015 and the Akuko Poetry Prize 2021. He loves coffee, blondes, and turtles.