Enter your email Address

ENTROPY
  • About
    • About
    • Masthead
    • Advertising
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Info on Book Reviews
  • Essays
    • All Introspection
      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      WOVEN: Dick Coyote and the Camel’s Back

      March 3, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      On Britney, Party Girls, and the Fight for Narrative Control

      March 2, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Variations on a Theme: Individuation

      February 27, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Our Side Of The Clouds

      February 26, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: Individuation

      February 27, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: Radio Days

      February 23, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: Daddy Rocked the Baby, Mother Said Amen

      February 20, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: The End of the World

      February 9, 2021

  • Fiction
    • Fiction

      The Birds: Canada Geese

      March 1, 2021

      Fiction

      BLACKCACKLE: Cain, Knocking

      February 24, 2021

      Fiction

      The Birds: A Bird Heart for Forgiveness

      February 19, 2021

      Fiction

      New Skin

      February 17, 2021

      Fiction

      The Birds: Skittering

      February 17, 2021

  • Reviews
    • All Collaborative Review Video Review
      Art

      What the Sun Can’t Heal: Review of Blood Memory by Gail Newman

      March 5, 2021

      Review

      How Proust Ruined My Life & Other Essays by Gloria Frym

      March 4, 2021

      Review

      Weirder Sadness, Reverberating Empathy, Invisible Revolution — Joanna Fuhrman’s To a New Era

      March 1, 2021

      Review

      Review: To Limn / Lying In by J’Lyn Chapman

      February 25, 2021

      Collaborative Review

      Attention to the Real: A Conversation

      September 3, 2020

      Collaborative Review

      A Street Car Named Whatever

      February 22, 2016

      Collaborative Review

      Black Gum: A Conversational Review

      August 7, 2015

      Collaborative Review

      Lords of Waterdeep in Conversation

      February 25, 2015

      Video Review

      Entropy’s Super Mario Level

      September 15, 2015

      Video Review

      Flash Portraits of Link: Part 7 – In Weakness, Find Strength

      January 2, 2015

      Video Review

      Basal Ganglia by Matthew Revert

      March 31, 2014

      Video Review

      The Desert Places by Amber Sparks and Robert Kloss, Illustrated by Matt Kish

      March 21, 2014

  • Small Press
    • Small Press

      OOMPH! Press

      February 24, 2021

      Small Press

      Dynamo Verlag

      February 17, 2021

      Small Press

      Abalone Mountain Press

      February 3, 2021

      Small Press

      Gordon Hill Press

      December 8, 2020

      Small Press

      Evidence House

      November 24, 2020

  • Where to Submit
  • More
    • Poetry
    • Interviews
    • Games
      • All Board Games Video Games
        Creative Nonfiction / Essay

        HOW VIDEO GAMES MADE ME BIOPHILIC

        February 12, 2021

        Creative Nonfiction / Essay

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: Lady of the West

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Paperback and Anomia

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: The Real Leeds Part 12 (Once in a Lifetime)

        November 10, 2018

        Video Games

        HOW VIDEO GAMES MADE ME BIOPHILIC

        February 12, 2021

        Video Games

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Video Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Video Games

        Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the Spirit of Generosity

        December 31, 2018

    • Food
    • Small Press Releases
    • Film
    • Music
    • Paranormal
    • Travel
    • Art
    • Graphic Novels
    • Comics
    • Current Events
    • Astrology
    • Random
  • RESOURCES
  • The Accomplices
    • THE ACCOMPLICES
    • Enclave
    • Trumpwatch

ENTROPY

  • About
    • About
    • Masthead
    • Advertising
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Info on Book Reviews
  • Essays
    • All Introspection
      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      WOVEN: Dick Coyote and the Camel’s Back

      March 3, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      On Britney, Party Girls, and the Fight for Narrative Control

      March 2, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Variations on a Theme: Individuation

      February 27, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Our Side Of The Clouds

      February 26, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: Individuation

      February 27, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: Radio Days

      February 23, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: Daddy Rocked the Baby, Mother Said Amen

      February 20, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: The End of the World

      February 9, 2021

  • Fiction
    • Fiction

      The Birds: Canada Geese

      March 1, 2021

      Fiction

      BLACKCACKLE: Cain, Knocking

      February 24, 2021

      Fiction

      The Birds: A Bird Heart for Forgiveness

      February 19, 2021

      Fiction

      New Skin

      February 17, 2021

      Fiction

      The Birds: Skittering

      February 17, 2021

  • Reviews
    • All Collaborative Review Video Review
      Art

      What the Sun Can’t Heal: Review of Blood Memory by Gail Newman

      March 5, 2021

      Review

      How Proust Ruined My Life & Other Essays by Gloria Frym

      March 4, 2021

      Review

      Weirder Sadness, Reverberating Empathy, Invisible Revolution — Joanna Fuhrman’s To a New Era

      March 1, 2021

      Review

      Review: To Limn / Lying In by J’Lyn Chapman

      February 25, 2021

      Collaborative Review

      Attention to the Real: A Conversation

      September 3, 2020

      Collaborative Review

      A Street Car Named Whatever

      February 22, 2016

      Collaborative Review

      Black Gum: A Conversational Review

      August 7, 2015

      Collaborative Review

      Lords of Waterdeep in Conversation

      February 25, 2015

      Video Review

      Entropy’s Super Mario Level

      September 15, 2015

      Video Review

      Flash Portraits of Link: Part 7 – In Weakness, Find Strength

      January 2, 2015

      Video Review

      Basal Ganglia by Matthew Revert

      March 31, 2014

      Video Review

      The Desert Places by Amber Sparks and Robert Kloss, Illustrated by Matt Kish

      March 21, 2014

  • Small Press
    • Small Press

      OOMPH! Press

      February 24, 2021

      Small Press

      Dynamo Verlag

      February 17, 2021

      Small Press

      Abalone Mountain Press

      February 3, 2021

      Small Press

      Gordon Hill Press

      December 8, 2020

      Small Press

      Evidence House

      November 24, 2020

  • Where to Submit
  • More
    • Poetry
    • Interviews
    • Games
      • All Board Games Video Games
        Creative Nonfiction / Essay

        HOW VIDEO GAMES MADE ME BIOPHILIC

        February 12, 2021

        Creative Nonfiction / Essay

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: Lady of the West

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Paperback and Anomia

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: The Real Leeds Part 12 (Once in a Lifetime)

        November 10, 2018

        Video Games

        HOW VIDEO GAMES MADE ME BIOPHILIC

        February 12, 2021

        Video Games

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Video Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Video Games

        Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the Spirit of Generosity

        December 31, 2018

    • Food
    • Small Press Releases
    • Film
    • Music
    • Paranormal
    • Travel
    • Art
    • Graphic Novels
    • Comics
    • Current Events
    • Astrology
    • Random
  • RESOURCES
  • The Accomplices
    • THE ACCOMPLICES
    • Enclave
    • Trumpwatch
Poetry

New Poetry from Tolu Oloruntoba

written by Guest Contributor May 14, 2019

Seamstress of Bandages

 

I cannot eliminate desire

Like monks can       but I can           blunt my

Self in other ways in daily ritual before I

Emerge to you.        Perhaps this

Is what my absent grandfather was up to―

Sanding himself down in his room.

A gray trickle was all they could hear.

 

His son, disdaining this silk,           was iron,

Knuckle ringing in the streets.

His mother, seamstress of

Bandages made soot faster to

Cushion their walls.

 

But these things skip a

Generation. I blunt myself anyway,               & for this,

Tie one arm behind me,     bind four fingers of the other to

Weaken my sword,               hew

Sinkholes beneath the mountain

To rub his iron from my

Blood; allow underground razor streams

To oxidize me                       warp me soft

Into a rust rubble, and        tan embrace.

 

In this gamble for

Buoyancy I grind down the

Bullets inscribed with his sin.

I do not grate him with           my guns

I find a goaded stream,

An oxbow lake to       carve us into

Saxophones holding still,

Our pangolin desire.

 

 

 

 


Terraforming

 

We are becoming a memory of ourselves―
obelisk cast in clay from downstairs up. Old
Chuck had the truth of it―
our death is strung in fragments, an ascending
paralysis taking the toes first but while
I have arms still can I
wrest this thing down?
We hurry because we feel the ebb
of life and land is a blockchain of violence,
matchstick house for climbing vines.
Prune it with chisel pencils,
tailor-measure the machine of hope nightly to save the air
but forest will not be denied― the grate will not keep it out forever.
And if we sacrifice with arson in the grove, wishing martini-glass
rain in a last belch of green,
were we ever here?
Only a few madmen hark in the streets.
It is impolite
to say aloud
the thing we all think.

 

 

 

 


Grove

 

In black light
the forest is an eyewhite fishbone grave,
we are bleached and all-pupil in its dark
and the curtains of the world do not hush
the dialtone traffic.
In black light
I asked for a diviner,
and one asked why I was sad.
I was,
when I looked.
You’re molting, said another,
and I did,
when I looked.

 

 

 

 


Tolu Oloruntoba was born in Ibadan, Nigeria, and practiced medicine before his current work. Some of his recent poetry can be found in Pleiades, Columbia Journal Online, Obsidian, SAND Journal, and elsewhere. His chapbook, “Manubrium,” will be published by Anstruther Press in summer 2019. He lives in Metro Vancouver.

New Poetry from Tolu Oloruntoba was last modified: May 14th, 2019 by Guest Contributor
poetryTolu Oloruntoba
0 comment
0
Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
Avatar
Guest Contributor

Entropy posts are often submitted to us by our fantastic readers & guest contributors. We'd love to receive a contribution from you too. Submission Guidelines.

previous post
Variations: Shape Note
next post
Dinnerview: José Olivarez

You may also like

The Birds: Chronesthesia

November 17, 2016

The Birds: Flesh and Feathers

October 24, 2017

Four from Oscillations

February 7, 2018

NAME TAGS #10: Happy Holidays

December 19, 2017
Facebook Twitter Instagram

Recent Comments

  • Jack Morrison wonderfully written & incredibly knowledgeable as always, great write-up!

    Warganization – Inauguration ·  March 4, 2021

  • furiousvexation Loved this. Killer first line and such a painted picture. Bravo!

    The Birds: a poem ·  February 17, 2021

  • Deidra Brown Wonderful, moving work!

    The Birds: a poem ·  February 15, 2021

Featured Columns & Series

  • The Birds
  • Dinnerview
  • WOVEN
  • Variations on a Theme
  • BLACKCACKLE
  • Literacy Narrative
  • COVID-19
  • Mini-Syllabus
  • Their Days Are Numbered
  • On Weather
  • Disarticulations
  • The Waters
  • Session Report series
  • Birdwolf
  • Comics I've Been Geeking Out On
  • Small Press Releases
  • Books I Hate (and Also Some I Like)
  • The Poetics of Spaces
  • Tales From the End of the Bus Line
  • Fog or a Cloud
  • 30 Years of Ghibli
  • Cooking Origin Stories
  • YOU MAKE ME FEEL
  • Ludic Writing
  • Best of 2019
  • Food and Covid-19
  • The Talking Cure
  • Stars to Stories
  • DRAGONS ARE REAL OR THEY ARE DEAD
  • Foster Care
  • LEAKY CULTURE
  • Jem and the Holographic Feminisms
  • D&D with Entropy

Find Us On Facebook

Entropy
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

©2014-2021 The Accomplices LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Read our updated Privacy Policy.


Back To Top