Image: silhouette of camel in the desert. Photo by Mariam Soliman on Unsplash

The Desert Traveller’s Prayer

If I will not emerge alive at the other end,
please make my body a meal

I commit myself into this journey,
knowing fully that something waits for me.

What waits for me,
I do not know.

Sugbon Oluwa, know
that I have left my home

because it is
a catalogue of tears.

If I will not emerge alive at the other end,
please make my body a meal

for the beasts of the sky so that
as they fly, I continue my voyage.

Image: black-and-white photo of Pèlúmi Sàlàkọ́ leaning against a wall. He looks into the camera with a half smile.

Pèlúmi Sàlàkọ́ writes from North Central, Nigeria where he presently studies for a Bachelor of Arts in History and International Studies. His writings have appeared or are forthcoming in Jacarpress, Ngiga Review, The Rising Phoenix Review, Pallette Poetry, Agbowo, Down River Road, Memento: An Anthology of Contemporary Nigerian Poetry, and elsewhere. He tweets @Salakobabaa