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
Bloody Beats
By TOBI ASO From Time’s gallery We watch The painful dance Of a drunkard Staggering painfully To the staccato Of Kalashnikovs And roaring grenades The spill of blood Boundless tears And sad ululations Reinvigorate excited drummers Incited to war By tortured memories Of wooden homes Covered by thatches And palm fronds All gutted by spilling oil fires Of spit baths While communal... Read More
Matters Not
By UCHE PETER UMEZ in memory of Odi I matters not ? decades it might take, the news will break with its bitter tang on your tongue: the bullet finds in the temple rare release, the bullet finds in the heart a deathless song; pipes burst, the flesh is charred in fire’s orgasm, tanks crush stubborn necks in political ism, matters not ? when the news comes to us: drink, drink on... Read More
