Universal Phobia
Carried away by the worldly materialism,
People run away from what is impervious, natural,
And what, in life, must smile and breathe.
I am innocent of what its cause may be,
But, here, I am touched, deeply moved,
And my heart, like a magma, melts itself
And loathes my consciousness.
Now, I can no longer see; my eyes are a replica
Of the Nile. &, again, I can no longer hear;
My ears are a duplication of my mother’s silence.
Behold! Today, I lost my essence;
My face is an earthquake–it’s a disaster,
It infuriates every eyelid that gets its center swallowed by my face.
My face reminds crowd of eyes that life is not water,
It is a conglomeration of broken hopes.
Dear uncle death,
I am an innocent boy that knows your scent
Since the day I clocked 10 years on Earth.
*You are the universal phobia in each heart that has a soul.
You are yourself. Your fear is what makes me human.
I hate you yet you keep loving me.
& someday, you will journey with me
To the land where only the bodies of lifeless souls breathe.
©2023 Yahuza Usman All rights reserved.
Yahuza Usman, a Hafiz, typist and graphic designer, is a Wikimedian, poet, spoken word artist, short-story writer, essayist and the Secretary of Taraba Hill-Top Creative Arts Foundation from Al-Mishkat Academy Jalingo, Taraba State. He has his works published by Al-Mir’aatuh Magazine, World Voices Magazine, Literary Yard, Itell Stories and Everything Beautiful, ArtingArena, Afrihil Press, Opinion Nigeria, Synchronized Chaos Magazine, The Daily Pointers and elsewhere. Yahuza is the coauthor of the book Let Me Grieve, and he bears “Crawling Writer” as his pseudonym.