by Ikechukwu Obiorah
The night was still a virgin when I became a moron,
Empty of all expressions watching a bat of the underworld,
Trying to steal my breath through a balcony of Lodge,
Its mandible was a tower hundred feet above ground,
Its legs of drill hung on my curtain in thick ropes of muscle,
And its neck was a viper twisting magic;
Its mouth gaped exposing a fence of teeth like dagger,
Invoking life out of me.
From the breathing cage of my upper body,
I became a living dead basking into a basket of casket,
I tried singing Ogene to awoken the spirit of my ancestors
To save my breath from being stolen,
But they had all gone to the land of the deaf.
In the pocket of silence I watched my tears
Flowing towards the river of damnation,
With a rotten hope wrapped up in cat-skin.
My eyes looked beside a corner of the lonely street,
And saw how a young grave arose as slave in abjection
Trying to kiss me into the prominence of death unexpected.
It was like a mirage when the only Being dwelling above,
Landed with a speed of grace;
Squeezing the bat beneath the grave,
Then I heard my nose sneezed out a rancid,
Following the injunction of a force pushing me back
To the consciousness of a life stitched in shadows;
I am just a mere mortal with an oiled skin.
Ikechukwu Obiorah is a Nigerian Writer, a Prolific Poet and Novelist. He studies B.A (Hons) English at the Benue State University, Makurdi. He is a member of Writers’ League (BSUM) and also a member of Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA Benue Chapter). He is the Ambassador of Student Poets in Nigeria (PIN). His poem “The Oracle Bard” has been published in “POETICA 2019” by Clarendon House Publications, England, UK. For a decade Poetry has been his sweet heart.
