Portrait of a Boy by Hassan Usman
A boy’s body is a graveyard
carrying so many coffins,
so many scattered bullets,
so many funeral songs.
The society is a gun
& his cowardliness pulls the trigger.
Who said boys are not stones?
Say, emotions are reversed when a man is involved.
A boy doesn’t feel pain,
pain feels him
because being a boy means
you should let the sun dry up your wounds,
you should not allow your eyes rain
for they’ll flood your body,
you should be your mother’s husband
& your sisters’ father.
The world doesn’t know a boy is a seashell,
he’s found empty when he dies.
He’s an unfinished poem, already rejected.
He’s the villain in his own story.
Hassan Usman, pen-named Billiospeaks, is 2/4 of Next Generational Poets. He studies Counselor Education at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria. He fills up emptiness by writing poems and sometimes feels dead in between words. His works are/forthcoming in Five South, Kissing Dynamite Poetry, Lunaris Review, The Shallow Tales Review, and elsewhere. He’s on Twitter and Instagram @Billiospeaks.
Art by Dave Gregory