Site icon Words Rhymes & Rhythm

PORTRAIT OF A NIGERIAN SUNSET (a poem by Chibueze Obunadike)

Read Time:1 Minute, 9 Second
two fat pigeons perched on a telephone wire,
they look in love,
behind them, the sky blooms crimson like a gunshot wound,
catches my breath.
i don’t stop to stare.
a police van idles nearby.
i fish the nose mask from my pocket,
clutch it tight in my fist, just in case.

our country has since stalled into a go slow.
around me, sealed shops & empty buildings stretch
lifeless for miles, monuments of a once-alive city,
every one of us hurried into isolation,
the unfortunate victims of history.

i bend the corner & small car whizzes by,
rushing towards its own life.
a shop owner stands in front of her shop
& contemplates hunger.
four girls stroll past, laughing as they go
& i wonder where they get their joy from, take
a little bit for myself but save it for a more
important time.

up ahead, two lovers walk hand in hand,
against the odds, heads angled towards each other,
watching the sun go down.

Exit mobile version