We that stayed indoor painted figments of fear over our doorsteps,
We that went outside wore spacesuits on earth,
CONVERSATION WITH MY GRANDMOTHER & DEATH SENTENCE (two poems by Blessing Omeiza Ojo)
We remain in our homes,
like prisoners in their cells,
because there’s no promise
of aseptic air,
no promise of safe strolls,
ELEGY FOR A KILLER-VIRUS LOCKING THE WORLD DOWN (a poem by Emmanuel Ojeikhodion)
Somewhere around, a sneeze only wreaked out from a
man’s throat & everyone faded away like smoke.
ODE TO FRONT-LINERS (a poem by Olaewe David Opeyemi)
And you stood there in your gowns and your masks
fetching people from the flame as if
you do not live in houses of flesh, as if
you do not have people whose hearts skip
and leap with currents of worries for you.
THESE SPECKS OF DUST (a poem by Michael Emmanuel)
hope tucked in the distanced engagements / the
anniversaries / the successful fundraisings
/ the crowd of courses / the dullness of indoors
/ the cracking of dawn / the dimming of dusk
THE MINISCULE ACT OF A LOCKDOWN (a poem by Olajuwon Joseph Olumide)
In between the leaves recuperating on the boughs, serrating the pure backdrop of the firmaments, the gossiping birds hop from one twig to another flailing at the deaf world that won’t oblige
SENIOR MAN (a poem by Oppong Clifford Benjamin)
We’re busy fondling the breast of our phones
depositing our minds in the abstract
while avoiding reality’s stony face
PUBLIC TEARS (a poem by Osho Tunde)
They drove past me and my brother—
The x and y in an equation
Past our cry for survival
Our hands resting on our waists
I AM HANDICAPPED (a poem by Mohammed Oluwatimileyin Taoheed)
We are handicapped
In our roofed barns,
By an incorporeal army of weevils
That slosh our soft chins;
As if we were bunnies
Playing with their mother’s paws.
AFTERMATH OF NOSTALGIA (a poem by Olaitan Humble)
we, zoom into
everything zoom-able as they are a brief consolation of a fulfilling
life, make do with the crumbs leftover from our nightmares,
