We that stayed indoor painted figments of fear over our doorsteps,
We that went outside wore spacesuits on earth,
LOCKDOWN (a poem by Taofeeqah Adigun)
Everyone thought it was the end of the world but it wasn’t,
For it came like a thief at night, taking both the holy and unholy.
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
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.
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.
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
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
DEBACLE (a poem by Nket-Awaji Alpheaus)
between reality and fantasy
we see zilch swimming the sea
the depth of faith flows
towards confluence of cognition
WHICH DAY IS SATURDAY? (a poem by Favour Chukwuemeka)
Yet you won’t be one to die before your time,
after all Abraham’s your father
and Chapter’s cook is your mother.