Response to Fiyinfoluwa Oladipo’s “Dusk”

will you ever come home?

the journey
a scooter ride up Kilimanjaro.
across the Himalayas
the migration of zebras
is stalled by a pack of famished hyenas
and a forest set on fire
by a cigarette not
properly put off.
home is the farthest place
that the mind can conceive
one does not choose
to be mad or the type
of madness to carry.
this migration of birds
become soundless
except for the flapping
of their wings, feathers
slowly cutting through
the air like hot knife
through butter.

Younglan Talyoung