Exit – Emmanuel Yamba.
Exit for Uncle Lawrence because you have investedall of your time searching for anaccent to call on God with, that only himunderstands – you empty yourself of words.for there is no taste of prayer on your tonguebut you managed to unravel it like a gift somethingthat resembles the silence bury within your heart,at night – when the moon sends the sun to bed.every part of you keeps calling God with differentnames like marketers begging a buyer.in this poem, there is a black boy who wantsto survive this dew of pain falling& wants for God to do with grief what ease does to pain,what light does to darkness – to plant lifein a body that knows not how to live.he moves beyond doubt & waits on God for an answer; faith.this boy still sees his father counting his breath& wants to learn how to peel sickness off his father’s skinbut there…
No One Wants to Write an Elegy – Ridwan Badamasi.
No One Wants to Write an Elegy The disposition of the gravelike an openmouth.Cut is the stalkthat might have grown fullystraight. We trampledew-wet grasses finely latticed with day-oldspider webs. No onewants to write an elegy.The cruelty of sweet-smellingearth, the wet thump as it splashesoff the shovels. And already there is nothing left to see. As evening comes birds go quietlyinto the dark. Relatives fill upthe gaping rooms. We sitaround the hearth, watchingthe flames lick up mounds ofdry sugarcane pulp. And the old womencover the silence with their weeping. Contributor’s Bio Ridwan Badamasi is a Nigerian. He writes from the ancient city of Kano. A Biochemistry undergrad at Bayero University, his works have appeared in Praxis Magazine, Kalahari Review, Salamander Ink Magazine, and elsewhere. You can find him on Instagram: @pluetarch. Also, via email at [email protected].