They said I should try falling in love
But look at my scars; see what it made me become
“Love,” they say, “makes the world go on and on”
Yet I bled poems in silence until dawn

Hmm...
What do they think I am?
A flicker? A flame? Some sacrificial lamb?
Oh; A whisper in their wicked plan?
Who they think I be… some lesser man?

See; I'm neither that; neither this
I'm the howl inside that deep abyss
And if that means I must resist
I'll let the world burn bit by bit

I'll burn the world for the one I love
Let empires crack from skies above
If peace won’t come, then war must fit
And I’ll kiss the ash while I carry it

So tell them love ain’t soft or sweet
It’s fire; it’s fists; it’s ****** feet
If love’s the game they make us play
Then let me love the hell away

I’m the storm they can’t outlast
The broken glass of a future passed
If love's a lie; then let it break
And in its ruins; I’ll make my stake

I’ll tear apart the heart’s disguise
And feed it back to their empty lies
For love they say; but never feel
I’ll make them taste the blood I steal

Every soul I gave my heart to... gone
Left me buried before the break of dawn
Now all that’s left in this hollow space...
are veins that echo, a pulse erased

Nonfunctional arteries, silence instead
Where love once lived now walks the dead
I’ve mourned alive; I've wept in stone
I carried pain like it’s flesh and bone

I stitched my soul with threads of pain
Nursed heartbreak like cold winter rain
Cradled sorrow like a child with no name
And wore my wounds like a warrior’s chain

9:59 was a heartbeat
A half breath in a thunderstorm of seconds
He was the whisper before the scream
The hush before the applause
A lover... that the world forgot
but see time... time never dared to ignore

Waiting calmly for 10 o’clock
To feel her click... to hear her knock
To whisper soft with gentle grin
“Come close, my love... let time begin”

But 10:00… oh; she never came
She chased the world; adored the fame
A golden hour; dressed in pride
Yet left his steady hands denied.

To her...
9:59 was the almost...
A blemish...
A name unworthy of inscription in her scrolls of becoming
She mistook proximity for poverty
Kindness for cling
Loyalty for lack

He stood still
At the edge of forever
Watching her shadow in the minute ahead
10 o’clock
Queen of symmetry
Darling of digits
Precise Pristine
Always on time.... but never for him

He stood there broken
While she danced with 10:05
Flirted with 10:15
Swooned for 10:50
all the futures...
never the foundation

He watched her click for the 10:01s
The 10:10s; 10:59s…
Everyone who came after
Everyone who came greater
And maybe... just maybe
that’s why he was never enough

9:59 was a minute shy
Of being seen beneath her sky
A tender tick; a quiet song
That waited faithfully too long

He opened doors she wandered through
Yet she loved ones who never knew
Of all the time he kept for her
Of all the ways he'd never err

She sought the sparkle of 10:01
And swayed to noon beneath the sun
Chasing hours with brighter hues
Forgetting who lit up her fuse

He was 9:59
Not 10
Not round..
Not whole..
Not perfect

But he was the door...
The key
The minute that opened the moment
That lit the light...
That gave her name...
a place to exist

Still..
She looked past him
Always
Forever chasing the hourglass gods
Plus the sharp lines and golden ticks

And he...
He stood there
every day
every clock
every loop
Hoping for her
But never walked through with

He was the almost-lover
The breath before the kiss
The "just one more minute"...
You never give

Yet he loved her
Madly... Quietly
With all the time he wasn’t allowed

But time don’t bend for broken hearts
Clocks don’t tick for unspoken parts
And love?
Sometimes it’s just…
a minute short

I want to vanish
not like a whisper
but like a wound that healed without leaving a scar

To slip between moments
so quietly
even time forgets it once knew my name

No eulogies
no echoes
no unfinished songs in someone’s heart

I want to vanish
Not just disappear...
But evaporate
Quietly
Completely
Without a trace
Without a name
Without even a memory to whisper
"I was here"

I want to forget myself so perfectly
That even I
Don’t remember I ever wanted to forget
No lingering pain
No fading laughter
No aching nostalgia curled in old corners of my chest

I crave the blankness
Not death....
but the freedom of never having been

No shadows of  "almost"
No scent of "before"
No mirrors reminding me I once was more
No yesterday
No could-have-beens
No photographs of people I used to be

I want the kind of stillness
That doesn’t ask questions
No "what happened?"
No "why haven't you got married?"
No "who hurt you?"
No "are you okay?"
Because in oblivion....
There are no answers
Only absence

I don’t want healing
I don’t want closure
I want nothing
Nothing to carry
Nothing to crave
No flames inside
Not even ashes

So I beg you please
Let me un-be
Let the stars forget I ever watched them
Let the winds forget how I once wept into them
Let every thought of me dissolve
Like breath on a cold windowpane
Here.... then gone
Gone.... then never

I want to Vanish
Not lost because... lost things can be found
But unmade
Unwritten
Unremembered

Let even me forget the shape of my sorrow
Let even me forget the texture of joy
Strip me of stories, of my scars
of "why”

Let me dissolve into silence
so complete
it doesn’t even echo

I'd even prefer to be
Not the silence in the room
But the space before the room ever was
Not a shadow fading
But the light that never cast it

I want to go where even souls dont go
Where not even God says
"Return"

Alani
Name of thunder sealed in silk
Where the sky wrote secrets in ancestral ink
Born not just of womb; but of word
A name that prays; that pierces; that’s heard

I wear my name like woven pride
From the paths of prophets my fathers stride
Ala ni... we own the gold of grace
Even the gods give way to my face

Alani; okunrin to n sun aaro meta
Man who dreams thrice before the dawn breaks better
my heart; a palace of praise
my lips; psalmed with poetic blaze

I am the whisper of warriors... the witness of winds
A woven will where wisdom begins
My name is a proverb; passed through fire
Still glowing bold like ancestral choir

Call me "not common"; I come from core
From palms that plant; from prayers that pour
I walk in wealth they cannot weigh
My name is a drumbeat that kings obey
Alani
I walk like myth; breathe like song
Even the moon hums my name all night long
my steps... sermons on sacred sand
my fingers... scrolls from spirit’s hand

I am power; pulse; poise and plan
From woven whispers of ancient man
Let the world know when they call me in,...
They summon a storm with a royal grin

To love Alani is to love a seasonless spring
To touch him is to wake everything
The stars wore envy the night I'm kissed
By fate; by grace; or  a lover’s mist

I am a spirit wrapped in skin
The holy hidden... deep within
A mystery only God decodes
Yet a comfort where love’s river flows

So let the world remember this
Alani is not a man alone; he’s bliss
He’s a poetry; a portal; a praise on feet
Where romance; reverence; and reign all meet

Not hunger; no; not the ache of the poor
But pride in a dress; and the thirst for more
Not empty pots; not broken bread
But sweet; slick words that turned their heads

Kiise because of empty plates
Cos' she had gardens; she had gates
She's no street girl, no, she ain't born for coins
Yet she danced where fire and shame conjoins

"Oju loro wa; inu l’oro ku;"
The face may smile; but the heart hides rue

Ẹnu dídùn, ẹrin amúlùmálà,
A sugared tongue can sell banana,
She called him “Brother”
“Alasiri mi"; “My person,” “He’s just too nice"
But behind every “bestie” she swore was harmless...
Lurked a shadow with a price.

He warned; "stay away from that male friend; that whispering breeze"
But she mocked his worry; and called it disease
"You're insecure;" she laughed; with pride
Till tears found rivers she could not hide

Besties and backbones; they called them sweet
While secrets bloomed beneath their feet
He kissed her mind before her lips
And stole her soul with honeyed scripts

"Shey you no trust me ni?” she'd say to her man; “oh, you’re insecure.”
But trust was a window she left open; until shame walked in the door.

Not every smile is holy ground
Not every shoulder is safe or sound
"Confidant" today; but digger tomorrow
Building castles of regret and sorrow

The trap was not sudden; the trap was slow
A garden of laughter; hiding woe
She played with fire; called it light
Until darkness swallowed her sight

For every video the world has seen
A thousand more live in between
Secrets tucked in perfect gowns
Sins that never make a sound

Ṣọ ra, arábìnrin, guard your flame,
Not every candle bears your name.
Ẹnu dídùn le fà èṣù wá
A honeyed tongue can sell your star
The tongue that flatters can also slay
And wolves wear suits in clear broad day

In the end; Dear sister...
The devil does not always come with horns
Sometimes he comes as comfort...
As kindness, well-dressed and sworn.

Let’s not confuse attention with affection
Or presence with protection
Let’s remember....
Some men befriend your soul, only to auction your reflection.

So guard your gates
Love who loves you, even in truth’s raw form
Lest you join the growing silence
Of those who fell, and now mourn

"Que Sera Sera;” one of the lies that’s been passed down in ages
A sweet lullaby for the lazy
a lullaby that kills the will
We’re told; “Whatever will be; will be;”
but forget that what will be needs 'Will' to be

Destiny isn’t a scripted play; it’s a field
And man was gifted a tool; the name is "will"
Yet we sit; fold arms; and call it fate
as if the Most High created us to spectate

Not every dream dies because it wasn’t meant to be
Some die because someone refused to will it into being

“Que Sera Sera”; A lullaby laced in the lines of sages
but sweet on the tongue of passive cages
It's a chant for the chilled; not the chosen
a phrase for the frozen; who wait for fate with doors wide open
but never knock; never move; just hoping

“Whatever will be; will be”
sounds deep; but it ain't that deep
It’s how dreams go to sleep
It's how kings lose their crown
and blame the throne for sitting down

See; destiny ain’t a straight-line draft
It curves; it bends; it waits for craft
You were born with a map and a machete
Will you walk; or will you wait already?

Not every “meant to be” will see the light
Some stay in the dark 'cos you refuse to fight
Some die not from fate but neglect
buried in the soil of "what did you expect?"

So nah
Don’t sell your will for a whisper
Don’t call surrender scripture
Don’t paint apathy in gold and call it faith
God gave you breath; not brakes

“Que fit no sera sera”
what should be; might not ever be
if you let life happen passively
If you leave purpose to probability
you’ll forfeit your possibility

Because destiny without action? Is distraction
A poetic excuse for inaction
A fiction of fraction

So stand
Stand where the cowards sat
Dare where the doubters lacked
"Will" what must be;
’cos what must be might just flee
if you don’t become what you’re meant to be

Is it wrong
To run...
Toes off the floor
When your heel’s burning up from the weight you wore?

Is it weak
To weep...
When the silence screams more
Than the chaos you’ve begged your soul to ignore?

Is it fair
To care...
When no one sees you
But they drink from your light till there's none left to view?

Is it sane
To strain...
When you're stuck in the loop
Of giving your all to a world that just hoops?

Is it dumb
To numb...
To fake every laugh...
When your chest splits in two and you just want to crash?

Is it right
To fight...
With no one in sight...
Just your thoughts with knives under midnight light?

Is it love
To stay...
When your heart’s in decay...
And they left but still haunt you in every way?

Is it strength
To bend...
Without ever a mend...
Still smiling while knowing you’ve reached your end?

Is it cruel
To feel...
And still be unheard...
Like you’re screaming in ink but they ghost every word?

Is it peace
To sleep...
Or just a disguise...
When you’d rather not wake than relive your goodbyes?

Is it pride
To hide...
All the pain you confide...
Behind "I’m fine" while you're breaking inside?

Is it just
To trust...
When betrayal’s a trend...
And the people you loved pushed you out in the end?

Is it sin
To grin...
When your world caves in...
Just to keep up the face while you’re drowning within?

Is it strange
To change...
When the past feels cursed...
And you’d rather be numb than to feel what hurts?

Is it brave
To cave...
To not be okay...
To admit that the strong don’t always want to stay?

Is it life
To survive...
Yet feel so dead...
A shell in the crowd with a war in your head?