Dreamtalk

(with musical accompaniment: drum, cello or guitar)

Remi Raji

I will like to turn you inside out and step into your skin 
To be, that sober shadow in the mirror of indifference 

Look at me, slowly, behold the irises wherein you hide 
Wherein lies the ultrasound of hidden bleeding images 

And because you shift, you shift, you shift and shift 
I can tell you cringe to see the hypnosis of your own silence 

For I am the last tomb of an invisible age of the dead

I am the first to spread the resilience of resurrection 

For you I tremble to speak like the restless trombone 
I thirst to contain songs like the basket of chants 

But you shift, you shift 
You shift like the cynical child of an impatient father 

You shift because you fear to hear your own mimicry 
You shift and run like the extra day in a leap year

I will wait at the dock of your roundtrip pretence 
Or like grandfather's ageless stool in the square 

I will wait never to abandon you to this deafness 
I will like to tell you things you know but never know. 

And because ours is a deep-scarred cataract of anguish 
I will love you still in this age of hate and cholera 

When you reach the crossroads where nothing means 
Then you will read the road map on my face 

And out of my lips will fall the seductive words of life 
Because death is nothing but impossible silence 

And out of your lips the first syllables of light 
The first theorem of delight, the first desire of forgotten desires 

Together we shall surprise the world of the spirit 
Together we'll be the envy of the world of the flesh 

In your shadow I will see myself and you in mine 
And no one mirror will contain the sinews of our image 

We will walk a thousand years back, back 
To the hills, valleys and the beach of beginnings 

You will use my voice to compose new songs 
And when I open my mouth, the voice will be yours 

In the fresh frenzy in the lyrical light 
In the volcano of valiant passion, in these- 

We will dream dreams and our dreams will become 
The cushion stones of new times, new seeds, new fruits 

Our dream, my dream, but where are you in this trance 
I will go back to the crossroads I'm sure you're waiting...

Remi Raji

Remi Raji is a Nigerian poet, scholar, literary organiser and cultural activist. Raji’s first collection of poems – A Harvest of Laughters (1997) – has won national and international recognition.