JENNIE IFEATU

I entered my compound and banged the gate behind me. I walked to my door and inserted the key into the door hole then I caught a glimpse of a dark shadow that ducked. Could it have been my imagination? I turned the key to unlock the door and felt a pair of palms cup my eyes. There had been no supply of electricity. The black out just gained extra momentum.  I felt the palms then the softness of the palms and familiar cologne gave her away. "Abike!" She giggled as she released my tired eyes that she had held captive. "Why did you refuse picking my calls all through the day?", I feigned annoyance. She wore a mischievious smile, "Uncle police! So I am now to blame for a malice you started... eeehhh??" The thought of the title 'uncle police' was hilarious. "Oya, am sorry. I was only joking. How can I tell you not to talk to me again and you believed. I will die without you" "Hmmmm! You and your sugar-coated tongue",...

I will sit on the pyramid where I will be seen by you only At dusk my tears flowed Without restrain like a waterfall You chastised me O! With your burning sensation How I hated you How I wanted to lift my head up and grace your your face with spittle Your rays ate up my energy I couldn't breathe But it filled me with a strange yet more firm energy. I was bore of you Your words I chewed Letting the lumps crawl down my throat and enlarging my belly with a new feeling A feeling of longing yet satisfying My sight is renewed If this is what you want me to see Blind me with your rays Let me at the sight of your rays gasp I was told you give vitamins Is this the means? I have walked on red hot coals My feet are adorned with                           non-flammable soles I leap, lean in for his embrace and touch Alas! The sun does not scorch.

Nigeria.  June, 2020. It was a usual Monday morning at the United World Organization (UWO) regional office at Lagos. Employees walked like robots, every figure busy with his or her own tasks, nerdy eyes glued to their computer screens as their fingers pranced like hares on their keyboards. Men and women all dressed in suit and engrossed in their tasks. Their workaholic figures hidden behind their individual cubicle. I marveled at the site for a while then continued to mop the stairs. Just then, two hefty men brushed passed me in brisk motions that would have sent me tumbling down the stairs if not for my breakfast of fufu and bitter leaf soup that kept my feet on the ground. As I regained my balance, I wondered why they were in so much hurry as to obliterate every sense of courtesy. Few minutes later, they dragged Jackson down the stairs in handcuffs. What has he done? Why the public show of shame? The whole office was filled with murmurs and hushed whispers. I picked the m...

A birthday mate of the rain Existing before the occurrence of the reign Of optic fibres Ground intruding electric wires She lived and lubricated the terrains Of hidden deep earth-embedded maze Flowing through the creeks Into the pockets of those with colours of the greeks Economy draining into the sink Even before the next blink Our sales done in ecstasy Has defecated nemesis Is selling our black gold the basis; To keep Azikiwe's legacies? Fishes in the caskets down the river Children with bloated bellies that can't deliver the chill of black liquid on red earth makes it shiver Sniff! Doom is here, who will deliver? Upon her never-oiled back we hanged now, we fall like weightless rags Boma's oil spat a boomerang Ring! Ring! Her phone rang; "Not available," her network sang The black liquid no longer exist under the sand Wife of the red earth You flirted with the deep sunken rod Your value, Miss Man has gulped Algebraic and Socr...