when Marina Abramović and Ulay broke up, they turned the death of their relationship into a piece called The Lovers (1988), in which they walked towards each other from two sides of the Great Wall of China—2500km each, over the course of several months—meeting in the middle to say goodbye1.
TO CLOSE A DOOR (2018)
such drama. i imagine.
to walk from so far
& not come near enough to solace, only
the night uncloaks itself into a familiar pretense.
there is no cloak now so i confess
to cover who we have pretended to be.
there is a part of me that is never enough—half:
say empty, up to a certain filling.
when it’s air, does it still fill?
i’ll ask my becoming what air has filled you hollow?
as if this air of plummeting can be breathed
in high spirits.
as if after one reaches the heights of sweetness
in the center-filling of a chocolate cookie
it isn’t the aftertaste that lingers.
i know how to be sour.
it is difficult to kill a stone with two birds.
how can i be human and be bird?
what if i told you i once saw a stone grow wing?
we wear masks to be at ease with who we’re not
& leave who we are as luck & lonely.
Fakoyede Seun is a Nigerian writer and teacher. He received a MSc in Functional Analysis from the University Of Ibadan, Nigeria in 2015. He is a student of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria. His poems have recently appeared in Third Point Press, Stoneboat Literary Journal, Five2One Magazine, and The Borfski Press.