Trust
I want to be in your hands. I want to be naked under your hand. Shiver under it. I want to be had by you. I want you to touch the inside of my legs. My waist. My arms. I want to tremble under you and not be able to trust my legs to stand, nor my waist to keep me upright, nor my arms to feel the weather around me. When I don’t trust myself. I want you to take me, for granted.... Read More
Tales One Shouldn’t Tell Often
by Su’eddie Vershima Agema Inspired by H., poet and friend There is this tale men bear that boys never hear It really should be told everyone old enough to have learnt the pleasure not usually taught for which many of our souls in hell rot An old friend told of how the Creator found perfection in made man then angered somewhat thought of a hex and blessed man with sex He smiled... Read More
An Old Melody
When I see you listening to a nice song harping on the rains and the romance associated with its drizzle I too get wet with desire and want to melt in your arms… When I see you Playing the notes of a passionate melody I wish that you were my lover and I your dear beloved in whose eyes you can see love, love and only love… When I see you watching an amorous and dreamy album I... Read More
A Poet’s Struggles
(For Ahmed Maiwada) I (Traffic of a Night…) I am a passage tonight to the rhythms of crabs… I sit buttock-deep on this hearth to steam the whirlwinds of my eyes… But lamps are etherized on the lap-stands of this night, and it is not the time for wax… So ants can file out on trails Rain drains can meet and kiss into flood The speed of darkness may rise or rot. It’s not... Read More
I Brew in Broth
When the silence of my life rouses in darkness delves into my daily routine transitions into melancholy music at times, not exact then exuberant auto racing playing at times, not exact a new poem published or a kick in the ass— kick smacks like tornado alley— in the tomato can left over paste of my emotions at times, not exact; I realize the split of legacy, of loyalty on its... Read More
On the Runway
Moving along shining path, bright tiles and lights, swaggering on high heels shoulders high, flawless skin, she posed around Her hair flared about her strapless shining out fit as she darted about, on marble steps with smiling lips and sparkling strikes from cameras She moved faster, a strange light followed Her heart leaped, her heels squeaked, screeched and stopped Her hands... Read More
My Exorcism (GNR): Adebola Rayo
If I write or even think one more just one more poem about you, I’m going to shoot myself in the head. Before tomorrow comes, I will remember the laughter of yesterday, the love and joy that was our way…, but when tomorrow comes, I will not remember yesterday for it will be the pain of today. The awkwardness is in itself awkward, this silence between us. Screaming, spewing... Read More
The Poems of Uche Peter Umez (in GNR)
Coral Sun The sun slides quick fingers down the hips of hills. The sky gathers roses among still clouds. Beneath, I stare, a geyser shooting out of my heart. Okigwe Those lips of yours, my turtledove, come as a dream, delicately descend on my eyelids, my mouth― a poetic dream by the supple stream cradling sinuous hills. Those lips of yours, and my heart strums its banjo in... Read More
First Child (Dadepo Aderemi)
Editor’s Note: Each poem from the recently published Chapbook would be published weekly on the site. We appreciate comments, but reserve the rights to remove comments that are destructive rather than constructive The first seed that was planted, that she reaped I became the first fruit of her husband’s tillage; the first seed that germinated after her lover’s hoe ploughed... Read More
Giovanni’s New Room
Download Editor’s Note Our aesthetics are still based, in part, on prosody and vestigial criteria that should apply only to orature. Saraba continues in this chapbook, it’s fourth, to contrast the traditional forms with the newer species emerging from the evolution of the written word. Aderemi’s sonnet, “First Child,” free of the meretricious rhyme scheme and... Read More
