Love Poem: Silent dark
Eniola Ogunyanwo Avatar
Written by: Eniola Ogunyanwo

Silent dark

shadows
”When you are not fed love on a silver spoon, you learn to lick it off knives.”  
—Lauren Eden, The Lioness Awakens

i was raised by the dark—  
mother taught me to swallow  
the unsaid. my tongue split  
on edges, learned to sip honey  
from blades.  

shadows don’t starve.  
they chew the unspoken:  
hiss of struck matches,  
salt of a wound,  
a fist clenching grief  
like a prayer.  

i wear my scars as cutlery.  
each night, i set the table  
with my father’s silence,  
my mother’s marrowless bones.  
i eat what the light abandons.  
i drink what it fears.