(For Dami)

Gavel banging, stiletto walking,
A floating ponytail: pulled back
Like an obsidian lake, shimmering
Across powder floors, darting from black,

Like a phantom, headed to the opera
Of filing cabinets and swiveling chairs.
She lodges herself, in the moon’s umbra,
All five feet of her, like silky prayers

Tangled in satin dresses. Pointed chin,
Edging for the grasp of a finger’s tip,
Like a copa glass aches for cask-aged gin.
Pearly eyes hold my heart in vice-like grip.

Pretty please, pretty please, won’t you now
This tension ease—of butterflies in bellies
And racing thoughts like buzzing bees—
O woman with the scent of daisies.

Aanuoluwapo Adesina (2024)