muddied eyes

by David Agyei-Yeboah

He is barely clothed as he walks into the sepulcher. Thick cobwebs line the corners, the walls, the ceiling and dust coats the monuments arranged across the space. He pushes his weight onto the floor and lies prostrate, then kneels and lifts his eyes to the ceiling, mumbling for his sister to return from the dead.

An owl hoots nearby and he begins to moan – softly at first, before roaring spills out into the night, into the sky, reaching the heavens.

His neck is outstretched, knees smothered with dried oak leaves, nose bobbing in step with his racking, lips streaming with snot as he rises from his end of the sepulcher and wipes the tears that have besmirched his pallid face.

He is barely clothed; just a towel covering his nakedness as he reaches to his ancestors to return his long-lost sister.

He was barely clothed; just a towel covering his nakedness as he prised open his lips to swallow grief seconds after his ten-year-old sister ran her body through the knife in his hands when he was walking out the door to sharpen the cooking knife against the slab by the lawn.

He is barely clothed; just a towel draped around his waist, as he wrestles the guilt parading his innards, every night in his visions.

Photo of David Agyei-Yeboah

BIO: David Agyei-Yeboah is a Ghanaian artist. Social media: Instagram: @davidshaddai X: @david_shaddai