by Ogedengbe Tolulope Impact

"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels" ~ 2 Corinthians 4:7

                                    with the
staunch elements of love,
                      & the palette of affection 
you tried to paint me
                       into an image of a god,
pure, immaculate  & divine
                                    — a portrait       
 of perfection
                        with tandem grandeur,
but I would rather be
                                me — a mortal man 
frail, flawed: imperfect,
                       yet housing ounces of gold
in a body of clay.

Ogedengbe Tolulope Impact is a multiple award-winning Nigerian poet. His poems “Who I am” and “How we spend our nights in Covid times and The Night after the civil war ended” were shortlisted respectively for 2020 African Writers Award and the June and December editions of Collins Elesiro Literary Prize. Tolulope’s works have been published and are forthcoming in Pangolin Review, Amandasteelwriter, Words Rhymes and Rhythm, Wales Haiku Journal, Glass Poetry Press, Westchester Review, The Rising Phoenix Review, Wax Poetry and Art Magazine, Porridge Magazine, Subsaharan Magazine and elsewhere.

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