Machine Talk Charles E. Agu · 1992 Do you remember meI am big, tall and newYou should know me. I can print two at twelveThousand per hourWe are two of the same kindBut not twins My sister’s name sounds Vicky!She can print two times twovariegated and she’s fast tooShe’s used to making two piece coatfor […]
SILENT PASSION O. WONODI The springs well out waterdrops;drops from the sky measure the hoursof your undue discretion, hourslost between contending thoughts.And I that brought amuletsstimulated for a dance of nervesstay your many moods and the silence of passionsunspent, slips through rubbing and caressingfar-flung desires back to lifelike bubbles on watersurfaceending at vacant shores. My passions stay in the lay […]
NEW-LIVING SAM ONWUKA Hopping on light feet over twigs over hoes, stretchingTo the wharf I will go from.AH! Hastening as if pursued, hunted by the wiles. The sound of laughterAcross the hilltopThe distant resonance of drumbeats ever receding I come in all furyFollowing the signaturePicking from the heap, time burnished relics. New-living. What then is […]
BIRDS C. ’TUNDE LADIPO On a stroll along the avenueThe time is exactly noonAnd above in the skyBirds of the same featherAll flock together When the day is fineI always watch the timeTo behold their sightWhich is just bright Birds of the skyOf no definite courseThey continue to flyUntil they are caught Editor’s note: First […]
NO EASY ROOST ODIA OFEIMUN Home, a flight of bouldersre-enacting the dire and fermentof rhythms from whichyou have always sought escape; —the sadness of slouching mothernakedin the rain of your muzzled wishes— home; Where, in the dark reachesof a past-drenched will,you find a motive for counting the stars;you write a psalm of untrod futures:“let these grains […]
AFRICA SHALL SING AGAIN SAM ONWUKA GraduallyLike a slow kindling logA tree trunkRaising slowly, unwillinglyFireFor the harmattan. We had waited like the maimedWaited and had waited to the brinkTo the moment of despairAnd all seemed failingTo breakThe chill of harmattan. Editor’s note: First published in Nigeria Magazine, Sunday, March 1, 1970. Source: Archiving.
CREATIVE PROCESS SAMUEL ASEIN Scented ideas floatingin the mind’s suspensioncourt my soul like an evasive ladyon a first appointmentwith love. Mosaic of hued ideastender-lipped wordssink and float, weights and balancesof flagellating conceptslike sperms dazzling vanishing pointsof intermittent illuminationsof glow worms; faint suggestions and rejectionsthe ravished mindin ecstasy; possessed of tangled notionsand messages sievedinto shapes: records […]
SLEEP OF INNOCENCE ODIA OFEIMUN Another hawk tears through the wombof the night— gruesome go-crashof a million soulsin the speech of automation,the thrust of a monster-thoughtjolting your sleep; Comes oppressive silence,convulsing the selves in wild sensationsof prostrate-innocence, guilt. Mooning love, do not wakein this filthied hour of soot;don’t stir to share in the burdening swoopof insomnia […]
“POOL-GAME NA WA” ’SANMI-EBORA OGUNJOBI (Written Pidgin English) Oh! which kan blow bin thisFour Pounds don go this week againE no include that oneWey I pay on banker “Arsenal Ah! Failing to draw”Tottenham “Sure banker”Liverpool “Oh E no draw”Wessex “Yes he enter”Two out of four drawsBut na perm three out of fourI bankerSo man lose […]
This Vast Wilderness of Life Chris. Awonuga · 1970 Man moves about in a worldThat is not his ownAnd revels in abysmal ignorance;He gropes his way about,Stumbling at various points;But still he tries to find his way In this vast wilderness of Life. He knows not what he wants—No vague idea whatsoever;He sees but does not […]