do not succumb / to the allure / of smooth, sexy / skin that fools / the eye /
Your skeleton / is your framework, / lay in the bones, / the muscles, / the soft tissues

They were greyhounds mainly, wandering the neighborhood in groups, barking at cars and chasing plastic shopping bags caught in the wind. There was something otherworldly about them, their bike-seat-shaped heads, tails long and straight as pool cues.

“salvation is an encrypted message in the belly of a shark.
our divine loins surrounding a fallen body like sworn angels.
… our innards spilled out like petroleum jelly:
a matchstick thrown in here is self-arson.”

The only physical difference, due to genetics or an act of God, depending on who you ask, is that while Kehinde had the brown eyes typical for a Nigerian who could trace his roots back to a time before Europe carved up the African continent like a goat, Taiye was born with pale blue eyes.