- I still don’t know the language of love
Every girl has my father’s face.
- On a summer train ride from Kazan to Volgograd
I leave the radio talking to itself at home
There are roughly 1,137 silences
I fill my mother gently into every silence.
- My body is so tiny it takes the shape of anything it is poured into
Once I poured it in a vodka bottle and it fitted perfectly
But a church constantly spits me out, always cursing that I will never be enough.
- I once had a nightmare where I was happy
Died with a wide smile on my face
I was either swallowed whole or euthanasia
- Мне в России всегда грустно[1]
Everything is somehow bland
and in winter solitude builds an igloo in my heart.
- Her hair was everywhere and it smelled of coconut oil
The first time we kissed, flowers sprouted in my diastema
She called them ixoras, I don’t remember her name.
- I hope I am never ready to be a man
I just want to get a nose ring and be a flower boy
Sitting down on the edge of boyhood all my life.
- Perhaps it was some kind of Abrahamic love
I once tried to sacrifice myself.
I wanted to please a lover by setting the world on fire
So I used my body as fuel.
[1] Мне в России всегда грустно – In Russia I’m always sad

Ade Toke was born and grew up in Nigeria, currently studies Engineering at some University in Russia with the hopes of becoming a writer. Toke has published fictions for BellaNaija, a popular Nigerian blog and has worked as a book reviewer with Okada Books.