Your Song is Your Song

By Stephen Emmanuel Ogboh

Your Song is Your Song.

your voice is your voice

let your battlecry

be stronger than every lie.

let your outcry

echo above the sky.

your song is your song.

if it is a threnody,

sing it —

let it slake the thirst in your deepest parts

& stitch the cracks on your fissured heart.

if it is a melody,

make it;

like a baptised emblem

learns to sing and bark.

sing it;

like a freed titlark

sings a scratched anthem.

your voice is not theirs

your song is not theirs.

let no one strangle your voice

let no one steal your song

make it, sing it —

it’s yours, off-key or not.

Emmanuel Stephen Ogboh is a Nigerian poet with works published or forthcoming on Tuck, Matador Review, Down in the Dirt, Chelsea Review, and elsewhere. Follow the poet on Twitter @Stephenecdotes.

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