I eat my intestines,

But your pots are flooded with food and fishes.

I walk naked,

But your seats are fashioned with purple linen.

I lie in sty, in cold nights,

While your pigs sleep in castles.

---

You call me brother, but you wish that

The border between us were broader.

You turn your eyes away from me 

Whenever I kneel in plea for survival.

You call me brother, but you kiss

My rope of hope with a pair of scissors.

---

Blood is thicker than water,

But blood outside veins becomes a clot.

Brotherhood of blood or baptism

Without a sincere charity is a fallacy.

_____________

Olinya Ibeh Abuchi is a Nigerian born writer and teacher. He refers to himself as a “Pidgin-English grammarian” and studies English, Literature, and Education at the University of Benin, Nigeria. Abuchi’s work has appear on Sub-Saharan Magazine, The Green Black Tales, Nanty Greens Magazine and elsewhere. 

Photo Credit: Photo by Spencer Selover from Pexels