Silence rivalled the absence of light
Darkness crowded his room
As he slunk back into the dark
Regretting the lost warmth of his parents
Who died of starvation
Hunger leaning across his bowel
A garbled moan arose in his throat
Mingling with the pace of his breath
His empty stomach juggles deftly
In handicap races disclosing hunger
He screams, ‘Yeeh! Ahh!!’
Gone were the handful snacks
Exhausted by hunger, steaming body
He smelt like burning grasses
A flow of body juice
Slurped on the ground
Like the first raindrops of a coming storm.
His sinewy limbs – now weak,
His skin – roughed and wrinkled
By the brutal sun of the day
He dropped to his knees on the mud ground
Wrapping his hands around his belly
His muscles jerked of their own will
With stomach shrivelled, in shroud of emptiness
In a wandering glance, he sighted a nut
It was tough and nearly inedible
But he chewed in hunger haste
He didn’t notice his tongue’s protest
At the nut’s bitterness
He thought to himself “I need to survive”
Nut gone, his tears came…
He thought of his parents,
And said: “They were young when they died,
My night was left with no stars,
And no one in life spared me a care”
Written by: Muhammad Oyereyí Ahmad
Edited by: Kukogho Iruesiri Samson
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