{"id":1453,"date":"2026-07-11T20:27:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T20:27:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/akpatamag.com\/?p=1453"},"modified":"2026-07-11T20:27:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T20:27:25","slug":"loneliness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/akpatamag.com\/?p=1453","title":{"rendered":"LONELINESS\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>There&#8217;s never a perfect time to fall in love.<br>\u2014Jide Badmus<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The sweltering sun peers at me<br>while I pluck a blooming rose in<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">my aged mother&#8217;s garden. Unlike you,<br>I have no lover to give. No lover to hold it<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">tight against her chest like a promise,<br>to savour its fragrance, to caress its petals<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">like a baby&#8217;s cheeks. You guess the sun<br>bears witness that I am more single than<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">a figure. The priest prays I take after him<br>but it is a prayer that burns the old woman&#8217;s<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">throat. They said it is too late to find love at fifty.<br>That is why I answer \u201cBrother Paul\u201d. I forgive myself;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">circumstances are good at naming. I forgive myself.<br>Single at fifty, I carry the weight of a lover&#8217;s absence<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">like a hunchback. Age is peeling me\u2014my six packs<br>have vanished in the passage of time. The old woman&#8217;s<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">back still aches for a grandchild. At fifty, I am only<br>a warning to young men. God, trim me of this loneliness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like a rose in the garden, let the finger<br>of love find me like an insect finds nectar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There&#8217;s never a perfect time to fall in love.\u2014Jide Badmus The sweltering sun peers at mewhile I pluck a blooming rose in my aged mother&#8217;s garden. Unlike you,I have no lover to give. No lover to hold it tight against her chest like a promise,to savour its fragrance, to caress its petals like a baby&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/akpatamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/akpatamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/akpatamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akpatamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akpatamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/akpatamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1455,"href":"https:\/\/akpatamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453\/revisions\/1455"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akpatamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/akpatamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akpatamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akpatamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}