A little break from war stories, I’m pleased to announce to you that the new Sentinel Nigeria Magazine Issue #4 is out. It features poems, prose, reviews, interviews and essays from Nigeria and Nigerians in the diaspora (two of my poems made it into this one).
Here’s a poem by Jumoke Verissimo published in the issue:
Dirge
“He who does not mind torn clothes will soon be naked”
But we do not mind our rump in the wind
In this land of my birth, where will has died
As if cast with the curse of a thousand sores
The stroke of agitation copulates with anger
Pain is birthed. Ache will cease if scab will dry.
But in this land, anguish borders human dreams
Men’s brows thicken as the outline for a statue
Lives here are dressed in a uniform of desolation
Many days, we share stories of days we’ll laugh
We tell tales of the heroes who should have been
But as figments we live like we own no soul
The days that we walk like we own our souls,
Are the days when our souls walk with no legs,
Our legs, in a union with million wrongs, are numb,
But we do not curse, for we fear our voice will still,
So we wait and watch and weep, each decade for hope.
You can find the issue here.