The Summer My Dad Fell – Ebuka Evans
the summer my dad fell like a springI was the yellow confusion at a jigsaw I remember my smiles were numberedI could count happiness, my tears were liquid, uncountable things. My brain was in a constant—those annoying ads that pop up during video games. and my eyes wereclay, his falling baked the way I […]
The Past Tense of Country – Tiwaladeoluwa Adekunle
is when you leave your own on purpose
and fracture your name on purpose
and yield
Like Light Moving Across Oblivion – Stanley Princewill McDaniel
I know when to stop trying, & agony is simply agony: raw, red; & being lost is being nothing else
On Finally Seeing Astarte Syriaca I Am Overcome With A Longing To Text You A Meme Only You Would Laugh At – Momtaza Mehri
I don’t know what it means to stand in front of a goddess
and not see my own reflection. Convincing you is half the problem
Stones – Adeeko Ibukun
To the map, I am defining my home,
what stone breaks me in or I break upon
Reflections – Asisipho Shaun Burwana
There are men who will teach you how to swallow yourself
And how to hide dead bodies under your bed
A Page from My Diary – Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto
A girl once walked into it and became a blackboard
where a geometrical equation of bodies was solved from behind
A Short Note on Departure Theories – Echezonachukwu Nduka
The only way to defeat departure is to say goodbye & stay.
Say see you soon but sit still
I swallowed him whole – Ekpenyong Kosisochukwu
I do not wear pain like some people do
I spill it off me and wear a nice face
So my painter will learn a thing or two about mistakes
self-portrait as multiple dreamscapes, each craning its neck towards home – Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah
I wash up along the shore
& the gulls sing my coronation
sing boy, with crown full of salt
Celestial Observation – Goodness Olanrewaju Ayoola
my mother tongue is finished into / A neat silence / I break into a language holding my mouth hostage
fatimatu – Hauwa Shaffii Nuhu
my name is new & used –
butchered at the edges, keeping the fate
of its real owner away
