Because days become
un-demarcated,
I have not learnt to master echoes
or afternoons like this
where we recall the years of earthworms slipping into our skins
from slush. Making dragonflies
dance the circus on empty clotheslines.
I have been teaching myself to never forget our list
of minor tragedies.
In this house of dead bulbs
limp against walls.
After each visit, the minutes before you walk up the footbridge
and I watch you transfigure through metal rails into a cloud
of bodies in friction.
We hug to rob each other of mishaps that do not belong here.
Like ’99. The year we see just how tender the world becomes
in an aftermath
of first times: rains; fires; much later, bombs; but rains first.
For days afterwards, we watch through open roof, the sky
leak its content on our floor:
The scar it leaves behind.
Kechi Nomu (b.1987) is a poet, culture writer and film critic. She is a Brunel International African Poetry Prize finalist and author of Acts of Crucifixion, chosen by Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani for the African Poetry Book Fund Box Set and Akashic Books. Her poetry has been accepted for publication in Inter|rupture, the Bangalore Review, Enkare Review, Rialto Magazine, Expound and elsewhere. She co-curated an interview series for African poets between 2017 and 2018.