Mosaic | Muiz Ọpẹ́yẹmí Àjàyí
the intention, always, is to make music
of my breath. grasp a gangan & dance bàtá
to my heart aches beats. this is not to say
i’ve not been broken over & over. this is not
to say grief is not staple in the homes of boys like us.
here, peek through my flesh. look into my burning
bones. watch as i dare step into fire & pick up a song,
& pick up a scalding song; set ablaze
the gloom perched on my collarbones, all along
reiterating i never intended violence. & if
you ever find me strange & beautiful as mosaic,
know i’ve been shattered into a billion fragments
of jagged glass. but here i defy dissemination,
pick up my colorful tesserae, & begin merging,
once again. a mini cinematography of the way
earth cracks open with the breath of the most
high & ushers out fresh sprouts; green & golden
blossoms. lord, i’m not hesitant about indulging
the smell of my sore while it heals, of wafting
in the bittersweet stench while it hangs
still in the air—air which reminds me
that i breathe; breath which reminds me that
i live; life which reminds me that i’m liable
to being broken again & again. still i stay
chill & undiluted as spring water, knowing,
ya allah, you will piece this boy back together
again, till he moulds into an art mirroring
the aesthetics of the sculpture you kilned.
About the Author:
Muiz Ọpẹ́yẹmí Àjàyí (Frontier XVIII) is a Lagos-born Nigerian poet of Yoruba descent. His writings explore identity, language and place. A final-year Law student at the University of Ibadan, he’s the Asst. Curator of Poetry Column-NND, and a 2023 Poetry Translation Centre UNDERTOW fellow, he features in Splinter, Frontier Poetry, Chestnut Review, 20.35 Africa: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, Tab Journal, Olongo Africa, Lolwe, Tahoma Review, SAND Journal, Poetry Wales, Aké Review, Fantasy, and elsewhere. He won the Lagos-London Poetry Competition 2022, University of Ibadan Law LDS Poetry Prize 2022, and Jaw War Debate Championship 2025.