Euphoria | Joemario Umana | Poetry

Euphoria

my people perish for lack of knowledge
—Hosea 4:6

Heaven is a room with a white sun
smiling down at me, white coats
handshaking the wind
& voices like tic tac toe
tip-toeing over my ears,
on the not(s) and crosses
I will make and carry.
An angel says my body is like
a breathing pharmacy.
How will I tell him my body is a temple,
& I just love living in my head.
That molly is the elevator that gets me that high
& up there, acrophobia is a stranger.
That like Thomas Edison,
Xanax gives my sorrow a glow.
That codeine codes in ecstasy into my blood stream.
That coke makes me feel dope.
That my favorite kind of light
is this night that eats me.
That reality is so expensive,
so I pay rent to oblivion.
That euphoria is a city in happy regalia,
where the unhappy go seeking happiness.
How will I tell him that poppies petting are better?
How can a sinner tell he is a winner?
Well, not speaking is speaking, not?
So I will shut this door on my face,
and not open my eyes.

Why Should We Celebrate International Boys Day?

After Gretchen Filart

For a boy is a survival story. Like blood in the channels of a body, a boy is always running, wishing to be free like a feather dancing in the wind. For being naked is a sin and on enduring pain, a boy should be a fiend. Again, for a boy is a survival story. For society is gravity. For every boy defying gravity. For a boy who doesn’t think a noose is a snooze to his troubles. For every boy on the road of becoming a man became the wind. For every boy who knows giving up is costly. Again, for a boy is a survival story. For a boy who becomes a chameleon to blend into the pantheon. For a boy who is a stranger to his own body. For every boy on wanting to be, became a scapegoat and ended in a fire dance. For a boy finding his way into this poem. For a boy wearing this poem. For every boy out there, surviving.

Image by freepic.diller on Freepik

Joemario Umana is a Nigerian creative writer and a performance poet, whose poems are available and forthcoming in the anthology publication of NSPP 2022, GWAPA, Loch Raven Review, Punocracy, Eboquills, The Kahalari Review and Nairaland. His works have drawn literary appreciation to themselves. He is currently pursuing a bachelor degree in the University of Maiduguri, Borno State. He tweets @ Jo_marioumana