Dariji mi.
His eyes sparkled with something I couldn’t quite place. Tears refused to fall from them...
His eyes sparkled with something I couldn’t quite place. Tears refused to fall from them, So I wondered what made them look so glassy. Was he holding back his tears?
“Dariji mi1,” he muttered under his breath.
And then, it hit me… That look. The same one I had seen so many times when he cleaned my wounds. Wounds he had gifted me, while whispering, “Dariji mi, Ife mi2.”
His eyes always watered, Just enough for me to believe he was sorry, But never enough for it to truly matter.
Now, as he stood over my grave, Muttering those same words, “Dariji mi,” I wondered - had he ever really meant it?
“Dariji mi” means “Forgive me”
“Ife mi” means “My love”
So lost in love,
She folded into his whispers,
blinded by his rose petals,
Kissing thorns, mistaking them for love.