Longlisted Poem: Untitled Entry
SIMON AKPAMA is a recently graduated Dentist from the University of Calabar, and a poet whose creative and professional pursuits converge around the theme of healing and love. He believes that dentistry and poetry share a common language of restoration, care, and attention to detail. His journey through dental school deepened his fascination with the delicate relationship between pain and recovery – a dynamic that he expresses in his writing.
[Untitled]
I did never take love on a platter of gold,
it was against all I had been taught.
If it came at me so easily, it wasn’t going to last.
If it looked like the fairytales, then it was not for me.
What’s love without the chase for attention, the effort to catch up with someone’s fantasy,
a race with a trophy at the finish line.
The challenge to outdo other challengers,
if love wasn’t a fight or flight affair,
if no one played hard to get,
it wasn’t an affair to long for.
So, even if love stood with me in the same room,
I wouldn’t see what’s right in front of me
or I would use what’s right in front me to chase Neverland.
Now I know,
The definition of love handed to me always had an eye defect;
either blind or long sighted.