To Hell with Doubt Forevermore

AM Kamaal

I believe I saw my private God:
Imageless like the wind. Shapeless
Like the rain.

He told me, with Buddhist gestures
Of his clandestine holiness, the two
Types of silence: the synonym of peacefulness
And that which stomachs a thousand
Chaos in its ever-elasticizing paunch.

I believe my kind of silence is the combination
Of the two: My mind a cottage of
Relative peacefulness and taciturn entropies.

My mouth words out necessary lies
In order to hold my parent closer
To their deserved happiness.

I believe words unsaid are a million times more
Captivating than the best Song of Love.
I mean, I believe silence more than I believe
My mouth. More than I believe its most
Meritorious children.

I believe I saw my private God:
Imageless like the wind, sabotaging the crude gait
Of slim doubt, slipping from one country
Of my indifferent body       into another.

EL Kamaal is a Nigerian poet, and writer. His work have appeared or forthcoming in Global Poemic, Lumiere Review, Hominum Journal, Wend Poetry, Idle Ink, and elsewhere. He was shortlisted for the 2020 Alpine Fellowship Academic Writing Prize.