"okoro" poems
I would've loved to meet her.
The sweetness you spoke in her honor.
A gentle breeze in a month of freezes.
Electric, connective, explorative.
I would love to meet the next.
The sweetest of peas.
Only bluest when being overly fruitful.
Reflections of trekking tower of the familial tree.
Expectations of expecting in introspect.
Forgive me for being greedy, wanting to be involved in your life.
Forgive me for involving my love.
I shall let the resting rest, the ones that need rest to get rested, and give my mind and soul a rest.
Ifeanyichuku Okoro © 2023
Nov 12, 2023
Nov 12, 2023 at 12:59 AM UTC
I fell short of matching all of the stars in space with the raindrops that made its way to Earth
Instead, I matched the stars in your eyes with the old pain's last breath and otherworldly love's first
The clouds have opened back up for business, booming thunder and zooming lightning
Somewhere there, the flash of your smile
The beat of your heart
The coolness of your waters that quench my thirst for you
It's natural to look at nature au naturale
Like Italians and Nigerians talking with hands as expressive as Deaf lovers relay romantic verses
Clear, nimble fingers that massage my soul within the cumulonimbus and nimbostratus
Fueling, flooding, fostering the gods' apparatus
You
The final form of unfinished paintings
Give birth to worthwhile wishful thinking
On my mind like taxes and teacher's lesson plans
A soft brush adjusting to the sky's new hues kissed like ones we've missed or knew
A masterpiece in pieces of Vishnu's vision for when he returns to look for Lakshmi
Hopefully time will not be Shiva to end this for me
How does it feel to be adored by Indra, when showers descend and drench the deepest ditches to force creation of drawbridges for those dire to cross your path again?
- Ifeanyi N. Okoro II © 2021
Jul 6, 2021
Jul 6, 2021 at 5:00 AM UTC
I hope you've heard my love hiding inside the melody that Donny Hathaway plays
From every poetic note folded amongst the ivory keys plucked
This heart writes light like butterfly wings fluttering in flight
But it's heavy when I barely see you
So, my vision grows old like my wishes of us
Weakened only by fleeting time
Yet. lengthened
Like desires that chain-link hopes to the wildest dreams along far streams
You could say I'm always in your hair
Wherever the strands flow, I follow its fibers feverishly
Strung along by song of nature so strong, that
I'm in a Pinocchio-state, made to move by your voice
A puppet parroting psalms to praise your personage
In the richness of your favor
In the hour of knowing
It's been a minute
And time is indeed money
Every second counts when I'm around your golden smile
I wish I could play this track forever
Or rewire my brain to rehearse every one of your favorite verses
Be the B-side of your cassette
And rewind to the best moments
Unwind together.
Ifeanyi N. Okoro II © 2018
Sep 7, 2018
Sep 7, 2018 at 10:18 AM UTC
Maybe it's the obsidian spirit within that wishes to be in her axis spin
A topsy-turvy tango on the turnpike
My heart tries keeping pace
Embarrassment of riches, her smile never saves face
I'm spoiled to witness a heavenly Rorschach test walking
Olympic views sparkling on high
A natural one
Holy smokes
I've seen the evergreens blush red
When she brushstrokes
Her paintbrush-lush hair amidst the background of the Puget Sound
So refreshing
Trapped in her net
Outside the network of jerks
Fishing for lust
Refresh the pages
Reload the look of ages
My type of hype
She's keying in on my keen instincts
Putting wings on my desires
So heights can be admired
So fright can be delayed
In flight, I've fallen.
- Ifeanyi Okoro II
Feb 22, 2019
Feb 22, 2019 at 11:45 AM UTC
Post slumber
Nothing changes when I reopen my eyes
Your smile and gait
Same puzzle piece reverie coming together
Like coarse bark and smooth leaves of walnut trees
Or your articulation and my weak knees.
Even when the road ceases
Let my affection not be a sojourn of the mind
But an embraced destination, instead.
Ifeanyi N. Okoro II - © 2018
May 1, 2018
May 1, 2018 at 11:23 AM UTC
I
Humbled and haunted
Decided to let go of my breaths
Hold on to terrible and troubled terms
My eyes
Bar tears from encroaching terra firma
For fear of being human
When told I was interstellar
I
Heavy and hollow
Created chasms between family, friends, and flirts
It's not a sign so cold
But a zodiac killing field sans air
Blame is solely on my solar surface
I'm burning with regret I refused to own
Because I didn't recognize the seeds I've sewn
I
Heart-ached and hoping
Resign to my final destination
Loved her
Continued to adore
Pouring out olive oil and anointing my tongue to release the finest psalms to surround her name
Blowing kisses to the wind to carry my dedication and declarations to decorate her skin
I
Halted
This Earth's praxis upon invisible axis
To view you
One last time
Before I die again.
Ifeanyichuku Okoro II © 2023
Nov 12, 2023
Nov 12, 2023 at 12:29 AM UTC
As fireworks litter the dancefloor of our atmosphere
One can only hope that we remember
Who really ignites our passions
Continues our flames
Sets off sparks in our hearts
And takes care of the scattered remains
You are my independence from the hold of avoiding interdependence
I'll forever light a Roman Candle to wish for romantic thoughts up a star
Explosive, you are.
Ifeanyi N. Okoro II © 2021
Jul 6, 2021
Jul 6, 2021 at 11:47 AM UTC
Instead of stones and hands,
We're throwing out hearts and hiding our emotions
Guilty in how we communicate
A message here
A chance visit there
Time lapping us on the track of our busy lives
Lapses when we don't act on our arrested desires
Or is that still such a sin only Satan so-call sells?
Cuffed,
read rights that announce what it should feel as wrong
Without passages, psalms, proverbs, and palm wine,
Both sacrilegious and unlawful to speak against our wants,
As if there's a separation of holy institution and national regions
In truth,
Lawless, this thing called love is!
It breaks and shatters everything
Steals your thoughts
Vandalizes your ears with the whispering words
Written and etched on its drums.
And here we are
Imprisoned as it taunts us outside the bars.
It wants to be caught.
And I, with you.
Or is it that
It temps us to attempt to flee with it?
Where?
If we break free and escape,
Adoration is how far?
Ifeanyichuku N. Okoro II © 2023
Jan 23, 2023
Jan 23, 2023 at 4:31 AM UTC
(For A.K.)
With her aesthetic psalms carved in this skin of mine
Readily healed with the balm she speaks
I gather courage to fight back my wanting desire
To see her again
When she leaves
I reopen the wounds
To revive pleasurable painful memories
Of her sharp beauty
Cutting deep.
Laughter, tearing through me like
Confetti on her personal new year
Her dancing is confection
Her smile, even sweeter
She doesn't age, she turn the page.
I can no longer conceal or restrict my praise
After all, it is her I worship on her holiday.
-
Ifeanyi N. Okoro II © 2018
Jan 5, 2018
Jan 5, 2018 at 1:08 AM UTC
If I came to you
Wounded
Wound up
Winded
Weary
Then remember that I couldn't fight what I felt for you anymore.
Why battle beating hearts that besiege my pride?
And
If I fell to my knees
There would be no need to lift me.
You already have when you smiled my way.
Burying a vision of you in my memory.
On my gravesite, blow the pinwheel, so you could send my soul spinning to heaven with every breath you take.
Ifeanyichuku Okoro II © 2023
Nov 12, 2023
Nov 12, 2023 at 12:48 AM UTC
Midnight.
Getting into incredible scenes as the southern US dreams
The color of your soul
Where unshackled, dancing spirits take control
Feet contact to terra firma via tactical movements painting its target
You attack, artistically
I resist no longer
Upon your canvas
I fall
Rome
Where (apparently) all roads lead to
Your heart, the coronary Colosseum.
A stronghold I yearn to hold tight
Under the roar of the crowd
And the loudness of your beats
Harmony
There are psalms that Cadillacs crank
Your viscous soul
At the seat of this purple drank think tank
Sticking to my ribs like backyard barbecue
Santoor mallets tapping my heartstrings
Doing 10 in a 65, side-to-side
Front, back
Letting the melodies ride and glide
Air
Whatever words you'd utter, I'd usurp its presence within the second it leaves your lips.
Floating on cloud 9
To catch your breath with my fingertips
Kinda like I want our lungs to be in a relationship
Or something close to enjoying the heights
Then record our previous accords just before
Midnight.
Ifeanyi N. Okoro II - © 2018
Apr 23, 2018
Apr 23, 2018 at 5:52 AM UTC
To touch your lips before dawn stretches across our skin
Similar to The Creation of Adam
On the eve of your departure
Where whimsical scripts meet sacrosanct words
Wrapping themselves around your tongue
And ripple like kaftans when sung
We hold these truths to be self-evident
And your vision is honest
I refuse suffering your absence amongst the hunger I feel
Cooking up a plan to capture your heart
A pinch of your perspiration's salt
The kiwi sweetness in your sway
Even if you appear in my dreams, although miles away
It's the best homecoming yet.
Ifeanyi N. Okoro II - © 2018
Apr 23, 2018
Apr 23, 2018 at 3:34 PM UTC
I'll be waiting
For those raging-fire smiles
To sear into my heart
And brand it with your desire
When the time comes
I will surrender everything
And want for nothing
Except for each word you whisper
To topple my castle
And your daring lips
To claim control of my own throne
As you speak
For I am lost in the darkness of your hair
The rivers of laughter
Typhoons of your waist
The legacy within your grasp
Long and familiar
This, I acknowledge
Under the epidermis of nightfall
Where blood departs from within my crown
Deposits in the veins of my hands
That glean your vessel like a cherished charm
Hoping to continue connecting like
Sinews and bone
Or
Roads to Rome's ruins
I am dizzy, but stand in assurance
And the soul is ready
To navigate the universe in your eyes.
I'll remain starstruck
Even when you're afar
Dazzling me more everyday.
Ifeanyi N. Okoro © 2018
Jan 15, 2018
Jan 15, 2018 at 5:37 AM UTC
What I truly miss
Began with innocent interrogation
Prodding at pasts
Emptying diction into enticing eyes and ears by the entrance
We were both educating each other
Almost until dawn
When dusk dusted our sheets
Separated, but connected
By telecommunications
As we lay and discuss lamentations and laughter
I never got tired
Of you
Of your secret science that seduced my senses
So, when autumnal apples approached ground
As common as students with Cambridge courses,
I found out that the law of falling
Doesn't sound as appealing
But I managed to gravitate towards you
Universally, there's a formula for that.
I feel things never stopped, but were always in motion.
Ifeanyichuku N. Okoro II © 2023
Jan 23, 2023
Jan 23, 2023 at 5:05 AM UTC
This winter night
What fell from the sky
Landed on my cheek
Cooled me
Gave me chills in my soul
Wasn't your lips
Unfortunately not your soothing words
And just like that, it melted
As did other snowflakes that made their descent
And I hated this Valentine's Day
For not letting me freeze
In your presence.
Ifeanyi N. Okoro © 2.14.21
Feb 14, 2021
Feb 14, 2021 at 11:14 PM UTC
How fertile your smile
How futile my defenses
It gave birth to peaceful, dead silence
In a universe of animated cacophony and stubbornness
As we track the movement of the stars
Gliding across terra firma, fervently
When flesh of the palms ascend to join
No lie survives
Once both hearts have submerged
Into
In two places
Between desire and the depth of the Caspian.
In between twin flame frames
Where our passionate, intimate orations' tempests
Stir our souls' embers to rising temperatures
Tempting a Titan high to fight the Gods.
I pray to the four corners of this domain
That if I can't hold on to forever
That you'd consider changing your name to "This Moment".
With permission, I'd gladly embrace your present presence.
-
Ifeanyi N. Okoro II © 2018
Jan 10, 2018
Jan 10, 2018 at 1:42 AM UTC
As the world turns carousel-style
This smile you've left me caused my dizzy spell
I've tried to smear it on my shirt
So it would become impossible to get out
Mess up my whites
Stain through to my soul
Make my half wants whole
What I loved about our movements together
Was the fact that our bodies knew the rhythm
Before the track played
As the lights splayed onto your shoulders
Cheeks aflame
Air
Thick like your locks 35 minutes past 5 o'clock
Tumbling, similar to my weakening defenses
At that moment, it wasn't even Capoeira
But how could one protect their face
From such striking beauty?
Persian pearls penetrating my mind
Your eyes fight fires and ignite desire
That night, I would've been just fine
Dying on sight
Trying to hold a dancing dream at midnight.
Ifeanyi N. Okoro II © 2.6.18
Feb 6, 2018
Feb 6, 2018 at 9:00 AM UTC
The last day of the year, and I paid a visit to show my respects
To attempt to humble my flesh
To give my reflection of a failed man
I
Who designated days of joy saved up from past jobs/relationships
Felt the lightning crash into my soul
Thinking it took the weird from one to half my whole self
I came to the plot
Twisting rose petals into my palm
And sprinkling them at her feet
Asking for forgiveness in a futile plea
I needed someone to speak to, and in this case
Spirits only speak to those who don't come forth weak with intentions
Renditions of "Wash Me" running through my mind
In all white, I delivered a bouquet
A brief say
A respite from desperation, my soul hath claimed
Prayed for her rest, her family's best, and a ceasing of my shameful pain
Hell, at one point, I thought I messed up her name.
Not even nervousness
Just urgently purging in the place where "my mama" 'nem stay
Pennies in her best number
A purple candle and rattle to battle back bad energies
The wind was so telling, that I couldn't even catch my breath
Running from reality
I asked for clarity in love through death.
Ifeanyi N Okoro II © 1/2/2024
Jan 2, 2024
Jan 2, 2024 at 1:15 AM UTC
Remembering nights when feet talked to asphalt
Making the way to nowhere fast
Just daydreaming in the time of tribulation
Even that seems against the law
But this is the season of desires
Wishing for the sun to catch up to the moon
Or for blazing June to date breezy December
Her presence
Hotter than July
So Stevie Wonderful
That vision fails to relay perfect captions of captured view
And heart rapidly repeats beats like winged mockingbirds do
And voice drops sonata when cantata is through
I realize I'm flirting with danger when thinking of you
If you are the heavenly hazard,
Just who am I casting my flirt to?
Ifeanyi N. Okoro II - © 2018
May 1, 2018
May 1, 2018 at 11:11 AM UTC
When springtime arrives
There's the intro of the Earth in a refreshing light.
Dew and sunshine,
Love (and many other tests like it),
Birth and rebirth,
And the blooms.
Amongst all this, I hope to see your smile
Soon.
.
Ifeanyi N. Okoro II - © 2018
Apr 4, 2018
Apr 4, 2018 at 11:33 AM UTC
Opening blinds to peer
Wondering how hard
Night fell and spelled out these stars
Those that don't know any better than
To copy your eyes
Just a spark in the dark galaxy
Sometimes I shoot the breeze
Hoping an officer's bullet won't hold me to
A permanent freeze
In the hour of despair
Where I haven't had a chance to clutch your soul
You have me under cardiac arrest
My heart in your possession
That gives us, at least, 5-to-10, mandatory
A fresh dew on the blades
Your hue next to my flesh
Springtime singing to us
As if we were growing on each other
Rose of Jericho when you revive my heart
From its tomb
From whence many nations came via your womb
A rose arose, aroused by the sun
You are the unread poem to an audience that craves the orator's tongue
A gift of gab to drab and dour arenas
I recite of you to hear my own self speak
To drug myself of nothings that ring so sweet.
Ifeanyi N. Okoro II © 2018
Apr 17, 2018
Apr 17, 2018 at 4:48 AM UTC
Taste
From whence your honey cometh
A slow flow
Sticky situation sensational to our senses
Since
Lips got close enough to read past prayers
On the vapor trails venting from our
Vocal cords
This transcends sweetness
The rocks that bare your amber nectar
When cracked upon connection
In the land we both desire to lay our heads
Wade and cross rivers like Oyono
Make maps of heaven upon your spine
With sublime digits
The bees will clamor and tea will feel lonely without.
-
Ifeanyi N. Okoro II © 2018
Jan 24, 2018
Jan 24, 2018 at 2:01 AM UTC
Okoro, Nwafor, and Ejike.
Three unwise men from the Floral east
Where spurred by an atavistic urge
To visit the Shrine of NWOKE
The Hedonist! The keeper
Of the frothy Necta
That soothes anxiety with oils of pleasure.
At the crack of dawn.
The keeper makes a journey
Far into the blurry thickest
With nothing but a twig he conquered the palm
And communes with the deities
As a Reward
He is blessed with a Necta
With which he curses Men.
From ***** crow to sunset
The Shrine of Palmfonds
Is never void of men.
Poor Devils!
Seeking to ease the heebie-jeebies of existence.
But the talisman of the necta is temporal!
The spirit only possesses for a night.
It flees by dawn cos it fears the light.
The three unwise men from the Floral east
Must make another visit to the Shrine.
They became faithfuls
They live only on the poisonous Necta
FIT ONLY FOR THE GODS.
Aug 2, 2017
Aug 2, 2017 at 4:54 AM UTC
Be the horns when you blow poetry into my ears
So I may dance
Or snap my fingers in accolades
The imagination
Writing you into my pages
Hoping the words would jump out at me
And hold me after the first stanzas
Piano keys
Press my soul
Hear the tuning
Tighten my heart strings
On stage
You perform
I surrender as your audience.
Ifeanyi N. Okoro II - © 2018
Feb 10, 2018
Feb 10, 2018 at 3:22 AM UTC
With this rain
I thee wed
Wet with aspirations
Downpour so thick upon the earth
It gives birth to creative hearts
Cutting and pasting promises broken in slips once notes passed in class
Now we prostrate
Gazing at glass dimensions
Daydreaming into moistened, nighttime-hued skies
Minutes from dusk
Consuming droplets like office coffee
Casually unfurling our tongues to catch a drip
Hoping to taste what it was like to be cooled down from old flames
This moonlight be the ring
Placed on the lace around your neck
Because your fingers don't need full metal jackets
With rocks like tax brackets
Besides, you're busy tracing our names encased in a heart in the stars
When the night crashes, and Venus visits Mars
But what does a wistful wanderer know?
Even as you depart
I'm trying to contain remnants of the zephyrs of your breath in mason jars like fireflies
As you call down for scattered heavy showers to follow your tempest trail left
Bathing in the heat of the night
Where there's trouble, wall-to-wall
Like Southern Mississippi or
Southeast Asia
Melodies of a river's croon or monsoon's boom, seasonally sweeping
Soaking my head
All of my worries are dead
I walk to your altar
In awe of your flora in the field of beauty
Amongst the springtime shadow of space
And swollen clouds
Receiving
Opening the heavens to sprinkle this bouquet
My poem, the precipitation
You request, I quench.
-
Ifeanyi N. Okoro II © 2018
Jan 8, 2018
Jan 8, 2018 at 3:01 AM UTC