Isaac Akanmu - Life's Rhythm in Poetry
The Eddy Network Podcast Episode 238
Isaac Akanmu is a young poet. He is the son of Nigerian parents having been born and raise in Staten Island, NC. He lives in Charlotte, NC. works in the financial services industry.
Here is the poem that he read on the podcast.
Abraham was the father of Isaac*
(originally published by The Westchester Review)
*and a wild donkey of a man before him. i know the promise well; descendants as many as the stars—day-to-day, i wonder about a cosmos where i am ishmael instead of isaac. where i shine like an asterisk in a sunless sky. where my existence is a blackhead to the whitepaper of pharisees, a footnote to perfection, a blot upon my father’s flawless skin.
a dark star myself, i’d learn to stargaze without him. for instance, did you know the milky way and the single mother intersect at the cornerstore? i know many an asterisk there, forming constellations via star crunch and cosmic brownies. at the checkout counter, i twinkle among them, spending my quarters on artificial flavors and colorings, still not understanding how we can lighten hades and darken the cosmos at the same time—
it turns out, in neither universe is my father a stargazer. thankfully, dusty photo albums make great telescopes, and makeshift lessons from tough questions train my eye. in the sunless sky, i now see my long-lost half-sister. what do astronomers call a constellation of asterisks?
I like this very much.