Poet-Today ~ Umar Yogiza Jr. ~ The Arts-Muse Fair

white woes

my country is a one-book library,

my life and survival, a book without an  author

chapter of peace & good life already written.

only writers armed with the ink of bigotry:

tribalism or religion succeed as writers.

i am fighting to be good in a chapter of horror.

my country is a beautiful destination.

the journey depends on your connection.

and, i am a dirt of past encyclopaedias,

a syntax penned by marginalized bruises,

yearning to be beautiful in a pit of horror,

in a country ruled by the wit of saboteurs.

at the doors of who you know, get what!

the hinges and keyholes are suspended,

scenes are closed to be opened by corruption.

religion and tribalism, the only landscape

became the food that rots the tongues,

and the wound that closes the mouth.

my country is easy. it depends on who you are.

life is a grail, coded designs, coined by

filaments upon filaments of interpretation.

they are the thorns that readjusted my destiny

a sore spell, a fruit of rootless trees

whose images are the shadow of my body.

my country is wealthy, only for the wealthy.

i am reworking the labour that made me

dig the grave of the past, the one that buried- me

picking their bones to rewire the car

of history that brought me here, unready.

i am an orchid learning how to die like a man.

***

Umar Yogiza Jr, lives and writes from Abuja, Nigeria. His works have appeared in Arielchart, Spillwords, Pikerpress, Duanepoetree, Tuck Magazine, Poets in Nigeria, African Writers, Kalahari Reviews, ANA Reviews, Thematic journal of English poets, Anthologies, Journals and many online platforms