Believer’s Hymn
after Samuel Adeyemi’s Desist Hymn By David Solomon Mouthless god or godless mouth? my mouth opens in search of what has not deserted me: soft dust curls out like hang ropes. when i was a child, mother lapped an old…
poetry column
In my previous poem I was a boy
By Alaro Basit & yet again, like a seamster, I want to weave my past into my present. O Lord, help release a butterfly from this network of webs; I want to savor every blossoming petal in this garden &…
CALL FOR MANUSCRIPTS: NIGERIAN NEWSDIRECT CHAPBOOK AWARDS 2022
The NIGERIAN NEWSDIRECT CHAPBOOK AWARDS is an initiative of Poetry Column-NND that seeks to promote the voices of Nigerian poets, as the column does weekly in our newspaper. We hope to prioritize consistency of the award, and in so doing,…
A Compendium of Excuses To Not Call In The Aftermath of Falling Out of Love
By Onyekachi Iloh Sorry, I was in the shower. Sorry, my phone died. Sorry, I was doing the laundry. Sorry, I was at the North Pole. Penguins were sliding on the ice all around us. Sorry, old grief was at…
Stay here and
By Wendy Okekethe new year begins in the Septembers we flee again. Fireworks bleed into the sky, a nuanced rainbow.Night traffic glaze windows beyond a bridge of cars.On…
Aubade for the sin(g/k)ing river
By Muiz Opeyemi Ajayi Cathedrals drown the light at the denouement of this song. Say: even this orchestra defies illumination. At the edge of the dim light echoing from our past, I rock gently in the worn brown hammock on…
An Extra Note On Brokenness
By Hassan A. Usman There’s no figurative way to say this: I’m heartbroken. It’s sunset again— I arrange my body where there’s a flicker, learning new ways to excite my grief. Light, even light, is damned to darkness. A bird…
Every Unfettered Joy
By Ayoade Olamide Joy, they say, approaches in the morning, but this one breaking from my skin holds the semblance of a comet & I don’t know when it would hit. This art of liberty forms a laceration on my…
The Crucible
By Dami Ajayi (for Chebet) We let the logistics of saying goodbye overwhelm us, like young lovers. We remain tentative although we meant to be spontaneous. With ethanol & laughter & the canopy of night we feasted on music &…
Fall
By Joy Mamudu The first time I saw a rake, I was a child lost in the wonder of the metal fingers that gathered leaves into heaps I could roll in later, my laughter burning like incense to the gods…