Breath & Shadow
Winter 2021 - Vol. 18, Issue 1
"The Bird and the Worm"
written by
Adams Rapheal
Life is a bittersweet experience
That, at a time, polishes us with her pleasure, And, at another, tosses us into pain, Depression, crime, confusion and death.
Life is brief, yet longer than the chain our ancestors treaded on.
Our unborn generations await a journey on this plain endless plane.
It keeps ingesting and digesting
Our carcasses until we're done or decayed.
Life is the bird, with keen eyes, that
Finds us creeping on our belly
And consumes us with delight
Into its spacious stomach without satisfaction.
We are the worms that crawl on our bellies, Lost to the fact that someday The hungry bird in the sky Will soon cast us into its abyss.
As long as existence exists,
Life will continue to, sometimes, see us as preys, And the least of the chain, laughing at our struggle to survive her severe stings.
Adams Rapheal is a poet from Edo state originally, but now resides in Ogun state, Nigeria. A student of the university of Benin, he is studying English and literature currently in 200 level. Rapheal started his writing career in 2019 and has never stopped writing despite being rejected and criticized. Raphael is focused on bringing in new ideas that should be put in place to make the world a better place.