DITCHES (a poem by Raphael Oryiman)
Ditches; Are dug by green snakes. With kisses and hugs, And friendly smiles, Which dissight the wiles. Also, a fraternal embrace, That assures solace; Where venom is braced. Look! Leap!!...
‘CHILDREN OF MELANIN’ & ‘ROAD TO SOLDIER’ (two poems by Owolusi Lucky)
Whichever road that leads us to soldier
For a land thirsty for green leaves
Makes a hero of us that never gave
Up on our fatherland.
‘EJIMA’ (a poem by Vivian Nnagboro)
The pills are communion to you,
Each one bringing you closer to the most high.
The prophet’s cane, though a weapon
For destruction, seeks salvation for you.
‘THERE’S NOTHING LEFT’, ‘PIECE OF A DREAM’, ‘THERE WAS ALSO A CANDLE ON THE TABLE’ & ‘THE WOUND IS FULL OF BLOOD’ (four poems by Ivan de Monbrison)
There was also a candle on the table.
Pen, paper.
And the head that someone put there.
He must have forgotten it.
CAGED DOG DOESN’T BITE (a poem by Chime Justice Ndubuisi)
They eat the meat I killed,
I eat the bones and laugh at them
WHAT BRIGHTON SAYS ON A SUMMER EVE & IF LAGOS KNEW (two poems by S. Su’eddie Vershima Agema)
If Lagos knew, it would change, if only for one moment
to breath in deep in awe of this nativity
Bethlehem slept but Lagos hustles on another sunny day.
And as another placenta gets buried
Eko’s beauty is crafted in the sound of another infant cry.
ÈKÒ (a poem by Jamiu Ahmed)
in this city of crowded histories, where hurrying feet run after
the skyline like a masquerade chasing a lunatic over a pilfered naira note.
A PORTRAIT OF PORT-HARCOURT(a poem by Nket Godwin)
where is the rainbow i often found
in the sky of returning lips
oh port harcourt whose pots are courts
where meat arbirates fingers
sọ́kà (a poem by Adedayo Agarau)
in another room,
we found femurs
the latitude of
suffering
MONSIEUR PARISCOPE & FRESCOES: FLORENCE, DECEMBER 1989 (two poems by Kate Meyer)
We stepped out from my
borrowed flat in the Marais, under
the Renaissance arches of the Place
des Vosges and the formalities of
the Hotel de Sully, into the squalid
modernities of far-flung banlieu
where a cathedral lurks amongst
market debris.