Drinking Nectar
Mama Nnuku!*
It’s four years your daughter drank nectar
and shut her gate over our faces _
what kind of mother drinks and leave her children thirsty?
I sit around this stream daily fishing for memories,
Yesterday’s catch was big _ today’s bigger,
and my net isn’t getting weak, so I will keep
feeding anyone who gets hungry.
Her memories draw rain without bucket
to fetch it and I hope someday it creates a storm.
Insomnia clogs me these days’ cos
She spends little time in my dreams
and flakes out, leaving me chasing her particles
which silently slips away.
Mummy!
I will keep sitting at this gate
Hoping you open up someday.
*Mama Nnuku — Grandmother
The Visit
Love came visiting with a full
bottle of vodka
in no time I started dishing
out
crippled laughter,
it stood hours begging to come in
but this door no more opens
to strangers.
Obianuju memories visits 12am
Everyday:
Painting thick lines of sadness on my door
and begging for cookies and small chops,
It has many spare keys to my heart
So I changed the lock.
Please!
The next time they visit
tell them I move to a new empty space.
Dear Gerald
Gerald you live in a lonely world
Where men are scared to mate their destinies
and ejaculate their dreams in the spine of life _
so if you must mate do not be short of sperms.
You are a seed from premature ejaculation
So when people fight over thrones __ build thrones
For you are not a child from low sperm count.
Gerald you are chaos;
For you were the car that crushed the early
morning cockerel & made snowflakes from its
feathers.
You met your mother’s breast dried & suckled
slime from life’s shell
You drank from bitter streams __ took sap from
Cursed trees,
So don’t fight over honey with others.
Gerald, this life is a market,
and you are a market
If anyone must trade on you _ it should only
be legitimate goods.
Ozota Gerald Obinna writes from Nigeria. He studies at University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He writes to stay happy. His poem ‘Walls’ was longlisted in The Nigeria Student Poetry Prize 2020 and his work has appeared or forthcoming in Praxis magazine, Kalahari Review, The Rising Phoenix Review and several anthologies. You can follow him on Twitter @OzotaGerald.
