SNRTemplate1

Awake

Awake at midnight,
Let the river lead the moon’s search.

Awake at daybreak,
Let the clouds revel in sermons monotonous.

Awake…
Let the wind feast from the waters rot.

Awake…
Let the bushes bury their dead.

Awake…
Let the moon’s affectionate kiss comfort the leafless trees.

Awake…
Let winds raking leaves
……………………………………..
Appease gods bereft of godliness.

Thinking of you

I left a stone in a pond today,
just to say I miss you.

And so it rained

And so it rained tonight.
The beetle for the yam’s heart,
The termites to the bulb’s call,
The hoe in its sacred hide,
The hunter in moonstruck gaze,
And the red earth in soaked powder
Where words and ears are conspiring twins
houses divided between a hill’s armpit
And a valley’s anthill.
And so it rained tonight.
For lonesome hearts returned
From journeys unending, attending
To the day’s last dance
Before dying to see another day.

Some things to remember

Night. Kettle’s steaming.
The heart is a hawk, battered
in sand. This is it: the quest
to make sense on paper. Shouts cut
through the open window. The neighbors
are at it again. The shamelessness couples confront
to defeat self love. Pen in mouth,
I wait. Bobby Womack’s Harry
Hippie drags on. I want to call
Amina, to hear what her father said
when she got home after 10pm, or what sermons
her mother tossed at her while mending
her braids and learning how she paddled across
a steady wave, a man’s fingers
playing with her braids, his chest her pillow,
her heartbeat his comforter.

Copyright 2007, Dike Okoro. © This work is protected under the U.S. copyright laws. It may not be reproduced, reprinted, reused, or altered without the expressed written permission of the author.

Dike Okoro writes poetry and short stories. His work has appeared in major magazines and journals in Britain, Norway, South Africa, and the US. He teaches in the department of English at Olive Harvey College, Chicago. His book of poems, Dance of the Heart, is forthcoming (Malthouse Press, London/Lagos, 2007).