Song of Nights
for those who have been in the war
i
do not allow your body
beg to be taken out
or shaken into your throat
you will have to chant
a dirge of valley and limbs
to hear your own heartbeat
remember the wind was first young before an echo
& nursing mothers do not allow rotten
mangoes for breakfast
ii
a lyric that
does not harm you
is a strange place
to be as your voice
be softer than waves
on days like these
there are no madmen awake
to murmur wild dreams
into bodies born with bullet holes
so we discover home as
returning soldiers
iii
we keep what we
wore as skin under
the root of trees
for everything buried
grows into comets
that way even a beggar
is beautiful when
he loses a step
& bodies are left dangling
in the face of envious clouds
iv
when we leak,
our deepest forms cast
shadows on walls
first touched by angels
we cannot call moments
like these nights
without going to bed with pickled
seeds of prayers
almost fully made
Chronicles
1
We were brought here
When our voices sounded like gongs
2
Now the horses race solo
3
We are gap toothed,
our history will escape time
4
Arabic is the sweetest for love
5
This land must give back its dead
6
Who are we becoming when we change the way we pray?
7
Are aeroplanes real?
8
Our sons are becoming too local
9
Yet we remain blind while finding east
10
There is no fault in the eye of a needle
11
We’ve poked a baby in every lifetime
12
When asked what silence does
13
Say [ ]
14
Every night a new star twinkles
15
That doesn’t mean we do not admire in depths
16
Whose sons do we become now?
17
The world grows fatter than its shadow
18
The maze grows out of proportion
19
Nice to meet you,
20
Let’s talk about the flood
In the End
i may not have this world, but i will thirst like life
when you lick the salt on your palm over a child’s grave your last memory will itch you to tears, & i will be there in the roses,
forgetting the smell of homes
we look so much like the rainbow dressed in scars
Anthony Okpunor is a Nigerian writer who lives and writes from Asaba in Delta State. He splits his time between writing, reading, lectures, good epic music, and himself. His works have appeared on several online platforms including African Writers, Kreative Diadem, Praxis Magazine, and elsewhere.
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