OJO OLUMIDE EMMANUEL
everything you fathom,
everything you imagine, are bones/stark dry/
people’s name are bones, too.
someone called out, choked.
names, here, are over-washed echoes
white washed & hidden beneath Earth’s wit.
do not talk of history, i counsel you…
history began from forgotten places, names & songs…
history began from unseen scribbles penciled on dust…
my legs are stories fathers wrote on bush paths
before asphalt made mountains rubbles…
everything you fathom,
everything you see are fragments of unseen fragrance
burnt names, cadavers of tales
& minarets of the gone [forgotten]
OJO OLUMIDE EMMANUEL
is a Nigerian poet, playwright and editor. His works have appeared and are forthcoming at Feral, Quills, Writer Space Africa (WSA), The House that Built Me anthology, Poets in Nigeria (PIN), Imomotimi Anthology (WRR), The Nigerian Review (TNR) and elsewhere. He is an Assistant Editor at The Nigerian Review (Teen/interview section). He curates the monthly Wakaso Prize for Poetry and Abubakar Gimba Prize for Short Fiction (Administered by the Hill-top Creative Arts Foundation). He was long listed for the Poet in Nigeria Student Poetry Prize (2020), and he was shortlisted for the Arojah Student Playwriting Prize (2020). He is an Alumnus of the SprinNG Writers Fellowship. He tweets @OjoOlumideEmma2 and Ojo Olumide Emmanuel on Facebook.
