we don’t owe you anything
just because you were nice to us;
FESTIVAL OF CLOUDS (a poem by Salam Adejoke)
The wind hummed along
Then it was cloudy and windy
And soon all was bright and clear
And cloudy once again
HELIUM BALLOON (a poem by Franklyn Orode)
There are days when the coughing clouds spit acid on me
When rain comes pouring like prickly pieces of memories
‘NIGHTS VOID OF DAWN’ & ‘WILL YOU STAY FOREVER?’ (two poems by Adeyeye James Oluwatobi)
I said I know what love is
I saw how you undo your pain
& sorround your broken heart with roses
Luscious, beautiful, poignant!
BEDBUGS (a poem by Adedamola Jones Adedayo)
Sometimes my skin slithers that I feel
snake-calculating gestures of foreboding,
HUE (a poem by George Oge-Kalu Comfort)
The world made her the best version for herself
Even when she was seen as just a rare piece of china on her mother’s shelf
STAYING SAFE AS A LOVE LANGUAGE (a poem by Emmanuel Udoma)
No one would have conceived, handshakes and hugs could be death
SHOOTING PLAYS (a poem by Tochukwu Precious Eze)
they say some men, hearing the shooting
had stopped, went out to play
football, and bullets scored against their bodies
LOCKDOWN (a poem by Taofeeqah Adigun)
Everyone thought it was the end of the world but it wasn’t,
For it came like a thief at night, taking both the holy and unholy.
NOKIA’S DARK MODE; UPDATED VERSION (a poem by Bayowa Ayomide)
We that stayed indoor painted figments of fear over our doorsteps,
We that went outside wore spacesuits on earth,