You wake up, your mouth is too heavy
To say the morning prayer. Your knees
Are too weak to kiss the cold floor.
THIS LOVE | a CỌ́N-SCÌÒ poem by Salami Alimot Temitope
What is this tingling sensation in my stomach? Your name,
hibiscus in my mouth. Your voice, a star in the night
of my body. This love scintillates the orchid of my core.
‘CHRONICLE OF FORCED STEPS’ & ‘REFINED BRAIN DRAIN’ | two poems by Paschal Ezeokafor
why will a boy call home
the mouth of a snake
and tilt to a direction
that water leads to?
‘ONE DAY I WILL WRITE A POEM ABOUT MY DEPRESSION’ / ‘LOST’ / ‘ALONE’ / ‘THE POSSIBLE SAD STORY OF HOW YOU NEVER PURSUED YOUR DREAMS’ / ‘EMPTY EYES’ | five poems by Temi Tayo
One day I will write a poem about the tears,
That stain my face throughout the years.
‘THIS IS NOT A CURSE’ / ‘LIMBS’ / ‘ABBA’ / ‘THE STRUGGLE OF THE PATIENT’ / ‘LAUGHTER’ | five poems by Afra Adil Ahmad
But once your laughter fades,
I’m reminded of everything that is broken in this world,
everything broken about my heart.
WANDERER | a poem by Oyelola Adeola Ogunrinde
I arose from my bed, my dream, my fears
Towards an unknown destination
‘DEATH GAVE BIRTH TO MY FATHER IN THE PARADISE OF LOVE ‘ / ‘MANGROVE GIANT ‘ / ‘MEN IN OUR DUNGEON’ | three poems by Abubakar Auwal
From my mother’s words emerged a girl,
Her hair a cascade on my eyelashes unfurled.
Simultaneously, I am but a line,
In a poem where my mother’s a verse so divine.
‘A WIDOW’S CRY’ / ‘AGBADA’ / ‘HAMMER ON OUR SKIN’ / ‘CONTEMPLATIONS’ | four poems by Leonard Ifeanyi Ugwu, Jr.
To keep the blood linage or bear a son for the dead.
She becomes the brother’s inheritance.
‘SYMPHONY OF SOULS’ / ‘WHEN MY BREATH NO LONGER WHISPERS’ / ‘REQUIEM FOR RICHES’ | three poems by Olaseni Kehinde Precious
Tomorrow, I may vanish like the morning mist,
Which gracefully dissipates beneath the caress of sun’s smile
So, when I find my room beneath the earth’s embrace
Do not afflict your eyes with desolate tears
ivoryless corpses litter our lands | a BITL protest poem by Kukogho Iruesiri Samson
when shall the stop these haunting hunts
that turns trumpetting to dying grunts?