We do not give birth to the girl child like we do the boys, This is the reason the world doesn't belong to them. Daughter, this is how you know the world does not belong to you; You sit, walk and stand among boys With a posture manual clipped under your dress. [...]
I try counting the dirges that have passed through me The way water passes the borders of rocks And I lost my fingers to a certain tremor. This is not me telling you what I have passed through, But that I am what you pass through when you remember That there is a space [...]
Welcome to a darkened home Where snakes dominate the trees, And happy birds fly with a heart fearful of returning home, Where children are dogs at night. Welcome to a darkened home, Where sword and pistol daily speak in unison Nurturing the land with red wine, A place the sun refuses breeze to put [...]
Most people knew you as a great writer, But you were also a great negotiator. Never went back on your words, Strong-headed, but kind-hearted. “Egwu a m na-agu, o naghi e mee exist o” Was your theme song whenever we talked It always cracked me up. That song will be missed. You would [...]
I don’t know why But disaster makes me laugh, And I smile at the tears of others sometimes. I wonder if that makes me a villain, Or just another crazy spirit waiting to terrorise the universe. I swear I don’t mean any harm And I wouldn’t do anything to hurt a soul, But I [...]
That speck of soft and moist matter between your fingers -- without a name, origin uncertain -- which you briskly roll and rub, like flour, could be rheum, mucus, or your own skin tissue stuck in your fingernails when you clawed at yourself in your sleep... That cold pool drenching your bed... Likewise, I really [...]
So when you see the eyes of the wind roar under the manes of a furious darkness, know that I, Abiku, have come again. I am the leathery meat for the boastful swallows of the bald earth. I am bony; I choke. I am the ceaseless regurgitation, a death not dying... Tell awele to gather [...]
He gallops into my dream every night Carrying sprinkles of stars on his polished armor as though a heavenly knight. He would join me in the waterbed, And we would swim till I hear the morning birds And wake with my pants wet and dripping. But back in reality, he never returns my stare. He [...]
They were beggars Canvassing for votes Just like alms Soliciting for our approval. To get them there, Into their presumed promised land, They promised everything; They promised to serve us. We voted them in. We even paid them salaries. Now we are their slaves, At the suffering ends. The saviours of the people Have now [...]
My brother e-mails me about how, of late, people have cast words like stares that tell him he has not provided well enough for his family; that their financial struggles have been a burden, like rocks in bags on their backs they didn’t know were there. As he passed through the kitchen yesterday, Judge Judy [...]
Sub-Saharan Magazine 