In between the leaves recuperating on the boughs, serrating the pure backdrop of the firmaments, the gossiping birds hop from one twig to another flailing at the deaf world that won’t oblige
ODE TO FRONT-LINERS (a poem by Olaewe David Opeyemi)
And you stood there in your gowns and your masks
fetching people from the flame as if
you do not live in houses of flesh, as if
you do not have people whose hearts skip
and leap with currents of worries for you.
PUBLIC TEARS (a poem by Osho Tunde)
They drove past me and my brother—
The x and y in an equation
Past our cry for survival
Our hands resting on our waists
COVID-19 (a poem by Anthony Ogidi)
between reality and fantasy
we see zilch swimming the sea
the depth of faith flows
towards confluence of cognition
WHAT THE NOSE MASK MEANS IN MY COUNTRY (a poem by Akin-Ademola Emmanuel)
That every song of poor mothers
Has two verses—an imprecation for democracy’s
Bearded reptiles & an elegy
BARRICADES OF BRICKS (a poem by Ókólí Stephen Nonso)
yesterday, a man died & was laid with unspoken prayers.
they say families come together to show love & say goodbye to loved ones,
AFTERMATH OF NOSTALGIA (a poem by Olaitan Humble)
we, zoom into
everything zoom-able as they are a brief consolation of a fulfilling
life, make do with the crumbs leftover from our nightmares,
THE POTTER’S FIELD (a poem by Olowo Qudus)
the world is now a potter’s field filled with faultless death
of free men, it now whispers into the wind’s weary ears,
a song of forlornness/death/pain/torment and despair
DEBACLE (a poem by Nket-Awaji Alpheaus)
between reality and fantasy
we see zilch swimming the sea
the depth of faith flows
towards confluence of cognition
WHICH DAY IS SATURDAY? (a poem by Favour Chukwuemeka)
Yet you won’t be one to die before your time,
after all Abraham’s your father
and Chapter’s cook is your mother.