Earth and fire;
to slice the tongue sitting at the center of the market square.
INCENSE OF DIVINE OMENS (a poem by Akor Agada)
There are times hope turns into rain drops
in the quiet corner of our tongues
Pacifying the thirsty desert
MAYS (a poem by Ambali Abdulkabeer)
May the roads be clear for the air of rebirth
& the streets be free of draping agonies
GRAY HAIR (a poem by Luper Damkor)
It is a marvel, the Grace of gray
It is a cup, like the Holy Grail
Everyone longs… for a taste, they pray
OF REBIRTH IN WOES (a poem by Onwana Chibueze Declan)
When body rises to greet half-dead,
It’s house of will and intellect.
REBIRTH (a poem by Jide Badmus)
I break, heart of egg
into yolk of gratitude
—grain of time,
IN THE WINGS OF SPARROWS, A NEST FALLS & CALL ME HOLY (two poems by Osahon Oka)
Call me miracle. I cough blood into the fist of wind
& it is rain. Yes, call me saint; I have arrived before
purgatory time & time again & its doorknob has
AXOLOTL (a poem by Abasiama Udom)
I find strength to be whole—whole again.
Let me pull away from all I know. Leaving, losing my realities.
AFTER GRIEFS & RUINS (a poem by Qudus Olowo)
the earth/grew/ into solidarity
after grief gawped requiems into the soil /myringas/
sacred buffs— no longer hid in silence
WHAT IS NIGERIA TO ME (a poem by Chime Justice Ndubuisi)
She is the woman whose children left
and she heard they’ve been caught for theft.
She covers her face in cloth of shame,
Walks the streets looking for who to blame.