Atonements
By Aliyu Umar Muhammad The poem can start with him walking backwards into a roomHe takes off his jacket and sits down for the rest of his life— Warsan Shire Little thing,I know how deathgrows in you.I know how life…
poetry column nnd
Counting down
By Oladejo Abdullah Feranmi The whole house, like a body, fenced hot with fleshed clothes that refuse to dry.This, itself, is war, the beginning of the end,the derivation of warmth—like the feeling after a burnraged by a fire of ourselves.…
Osogbo
By Isaiah Adepoju Every evening wind-intangible,feral shadows burst open the wallsof the city like hand ploughing dead grass.The hard, inarticulate things memory-familiar, loyal to a fault— prise the city’sboughs and sunders, its Recyclable God,beat against morning & the innocence of…
ode to stubbornness
By Joshua Effiong while the night was still young,i called the stars to bear witness to the distillation of my desires.& the wind to wash away the debris that remained. i’ve become too old forthe body i possess. even my…
Enemies of Progress
By Oyindamola Shoola For two years, you’ve huffed and puffed.Yesterday, you did a negativity diet;today, your cure is a sunbath.Tomorrow, it will be a gummy bearthe Kardashians share,and next week, it will be a slimming teapromoted by an Instagram herbalist.…
broken verses on “field,” “rock,” & “eclipse”
I followed myself for a long while, deep into the field. – Richard Siken the field is always unfilled, forget the sunshine spilling atopthe land. if the body had wings, it would grasp the air& never let go.where do our…
(not) wanting death
By Ebuka Evans lord knows, like a child banished afresh from womb, my lips long for the flower of a lover’s nipples. lord knows i do not intend to take from another’s to fill mine but i am a hollow…
Recovering ember
By Splendor Victor In this poem, I am not withering anymore.I wake to the petrichor of soft light, and I recalllast night it rained—angel wings drizzlinglike daffodils. And see now, a garden.And butterflies dizzy with joy. God breezes by atevening.…
And my mother…
By Abdulrazaq Salihu For the people that hold me with fur My misery is a small pill,A body, punished by light& at the threshold of mySuffering my mother stretchesHer hands towards the darknessBefore it touches the flowersIn us, and my…
Fatihah Quadri Eniola is the new Social Media Curator Poetry Column-NND
We are pleased to announce that Fatihah Quadri Eniola is the new Social Media Curator of Poetry Column-NND. Born on a Friday in December, Fatihah Quadri Eniola is a Nigerian poet whose work has been featured in Torch Literary Arts, Blue…