Archive ‘24 | Star Zahra

(cover photograph direction: Tobi Amida)

Today, it rains somewhere in Africa.

A light bulb flashes weakly on and off.

A door opens into tomorrow,

But no one enters.

In Ngugi,

Feet are being stamped.

A youth staggers towards a building.

He holds his anger like a torch,

Throws it, and runs.

I open my mouth to chant,

To call him brother, but I am not with him.

I am in a grave.

Here, my country is a thing you hold lightly

Before it explodes.

Star Zahra

is a Nigerian writer, poet, and textile artist. She has been a poetry editor for Guesthouse Magazine (Iowa, USA) and a guest columnist for the Limbe-based The Sun Newspaper (Cameroon). Star judged the Andrew Nok Poetry Prize in 2022 and is the author of The Dance of Dawn (2018) and Girls and the Silhouette of Form (Masobe, 2024). Her works have been published in Isele Magazine, Red Poets, Kalahari Review, Writers Space Africa and Konya Shamsrumi. Star is also a journalist with Daily Trust, Nigeria.