Read Time:1 Minute, 9 Second
two fat pigeons perched on a telephone wire, they look in love, behind them, the sky blooms crimson like a gunshot wound, catches my breath. i don’t stop to stare. a police van idles nearby. i fish the nose mask from my pocket, clutch it tight in my fist, just in case. our country has since stalled into a go slow. around me, sealed shops & empty buildings stretch lifeless for miles, monuments of a once-alive city, every one of us hurried into isolation, the unfortunate victims of history. i bend the corner & small car whizzes by, rushing towards its own life. a shop owner stands in front of her shop & contemplates hunger. four girls stroll past, laughing as they go & i wonder where they get their joy from, take a little bit for myself but save it for a more important time. up ahead, two lovers walk hand in hand, against the odds, heads angled towards each other, watching the sun go down.
Chibueze Obunadike is an undergraduate student at University of Nigeria and an alumnus of the Singing Bullet Workshop. His worjs are published in The Best New African Poets 2018 Anthology, Kreative Diadem & CFW Freedom Magazine where it was recently awarded the Collins Eleisoro Literary Prize. His chapbook was published by Poets In Nigeria in 2020.
