Hoping for the greens we left behind

By Alobu Emmanuel

—after Saheed Sunday

The day I realised the earth’s misery
was when my keyboard’s auto-correct
called me a poor earth instead of a poet.
the earth is beautiful; so beautiful that mother nature
should slice our hands for daring to touch her this way.
now i sit by the sea & pray the waves to take me—
take me to those days when we, little lads, would
bend our pointer fingers together, calling on cattle egrets—
the white leke leke. begging for fine fingers.
let us grin at the greens in the neighbour’s yard once more,
preying on the praying mantis & spreading our wings
with grasshoppers. we did not always know what the
malaria capsule or the pharmacy looks like—
we have lemon grass & guava leaves
to heal our ills,
fresh fruits & roots to quell the hunger
& make us last longer.
i hope the fireflies & crickets come around again
in their numbers; buttocks lulling the night
into sparkles of green & peace.
our hands are soiled with oil. may the leke leke fly by
to give us new ones.

BIO:
Alobu Emmanuel is a student of Philosophy at the University of Lagos, Nigeria who strongly believes nature holds a great deal of magic. Some of his poems are featured in “Blue Marble Review”, “Eboquills”, “Celestite Poetry”, “Agape Review” and “HotPot Magazine”. His poems often feel like a hug.