Excerpt: The Other Side Of Living by Aliyu Umar Muhammad 

An Elegy in a Lovesong 
there’s a road one side, a river on the other,
& both could lead you home pending on the way 
you seek to the shore. I sat under the neem tree 
to taste how far its medicine works, a precision.
my mother’s antics scissor through our grey minds 
let’s say we’re un-cut seconds in the light of time 
a river knows the language of drowning, while my body 
is a ricochet for a life boat. the buoyancy of our lives 
is how dreams sink their butts like ship on a sea. i’m 
crossing another lane on the road. a road is a splint 
race of time dressed on a fracture in an arm bent. sunset 
leads the night by watching its distance deem close.
two lovers meeting on a bridge. there’s a road on one side,
a river on the other, & both could stuck you in the throat 
by how far you’ve watched it long. it’s two love birds
swinging tails, weighing the wind of love & I still sat
under the neem tree. heavy with memories seizing 
its breath on an edge of time. an elegy in a lovesong.

Psychosis of Little Things
All little things are held by the lightness
 Of the palms
All heavy things are bear on the
Chest like cross 
The little things inside our body 
 Become heaviest of shipping
The heavy ones, like paper planes 
 Kissed into a desert 
wind.