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Abayomi Animashaun
West of Neverland
After years of working
West of Neverland
In the most unsanitary
Meat packing company
And living in a tenement
Overrun by mice
Hook took by foot
The same route
Peter, Wendy, John
And Michael flew
When they soared
Straight on till morning
After passing the second star
On the right.
He returned home
To Neverland
With gray beard
And rusting hook
Gaunt, bald
Sunken-eyed
With worms, lice
And a distant look.
He returned
To find Smee gone.
His pirates
The lost boys
Croc
And the ticking clock.
Looking across
Marooner’s Rock
He sighs
From remorse
For what started as a game
And how it went all wrong.
How he agreed
(Now removing his shoes
And stilts)
To play the grown up
(His coat, beard
And wooden teeth)
Who held children prisoners
After chasing them
Like dogs.
How he bludgeoned Wendy
And broke her arms
Tied John and Michael
For days
Till they begged
To eat rats.
And Tiger Lilly
Tiger Lilly…
It was a part
He played too well
One he’s now
Resigned to
As he slowly adjusts
And reties the stilts
Slips on the coat
And pushes down
His wooden teeth
Again becoming
The aged man
From the meat packing
Company
The one diseased
With worms and lice
Who must return to work
After day break
Before the ticking clock
Strikes nine.
Abayomi Animashaun is an immigrant from Nigeria. He holds an MFA from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and a PhD from the University of Kansas. His poems have appeared in several print and online journals, including Diode, TriQuarterly, The Cortland Review, African American Review, Southern Indiana Review, The Adirondack Review, Passages North, and Versedaily. A recipient of the Hudson Prize and a grant from the International Center for Writing and Translation, Abayo is the author of two poetry collections, Sailing for Ithaca, and The Giving of Pears, and the editor of three anthologies, Far Villages: Welcome Essays for New & Beginner Poets, Others Will Enter the Gates: Immigrant Poets on Poetry, Influences, and Writing in America, and Walking the Tightrope: Poetry and Prose by LGBTQ Writers from Africa (with Spectra, Tatenda Muranda, Irwin Iradunkunda, and Timothy Kimutai).