Ayodele Omotayo Arowosegbe

Nigeria

The Listless Wave

 

It is a continuous wave, an intense energy, but it was once a life.

I was the life, and yet I am not anymore.

It had been an eventful life, but I have no memory of it.

Right now, everything I know is the wave.

I am the wave, drifting peacefully through my own existence

I exist, but I am not alive, I feel, but I am not aware.

Until something interferes in the smooth vibration of the wave.

And I find myself struggling to get out of this dark, tight prison.

I see a glimmer of light far off, and I want to discover it.

I feel a force pulling me. I will myself towards it.

Finally, the door opens, and I enter into the light.

The wave becomes listless. I am not the wave anymore.

Now I am the life, I am alive.

Faces stare down at me and voices call out to me.

I responded to their call with a cry.

‘Welcome to the world, newborn,’ one of the voices says, smiling.