Is this how laughter break?

 to those who lited fires of dream,

and could not put out

you all gifted our hearts a remembrance of burning scars 

you are the chlorophyll in our memory's grotto, the moon that does not dim... 

Is this how laughter break? 

Is this how fireflies pluck brightest flower

without notice 

in coldest night? 

Is this how music transform into elegy? 

yesterday was festival of sun & songs 

our lips smell of beautiful laughter 

& dances entwined the maidens' waist 

today - 

a mummuring darkness tuck our earth around its skin 

& we become monks in the cold temple of grief

Here are my pebbly words - a wreath for your painful absence

to dayo

& oluwaseun

whose bodies had dissolved into red ocean of blood 

whose feet had known slippery ends of the road, 

may the earth swaddle your eyes with garment of sleep

may you encounter fortress in the coolness of rivers...

(dedicated to dayo & seun, two university of Ibadan students who lost their lives, untimely, to icy hands of death. your memory shall continue to echo in our hearts..)

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Kehinde Adedeji is a young poet and writer. He lives in Ibadan, an ancient city of sages.