Understanding the Chemistry of Man | Rasheed Ayinla Shehu
(cover photograph direction: Victor Akhere) Death is a certainty, & Father’s death adds muscle to the conviction. Still, the thought of galloping into oblivion in the next seconds is a…
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the shallow tales review
415 posts
Two Poems | Jumoke Verissimo
(cover photograph direction: Tobi Amida) Four Decades On Distant whirr swoop into my mouth and sits in my ears. It is midnight and the dark won’t stay dark, as glimmers…
Two Poems | Nnamdi Ndiolo
(cover photograph direction: Tobi Amida) Aubade in Udi Hills For my grandma, Mary-Magdalene Chibuaku Ndiolo What is the cost of weaving agony into grace, of brailling pain into a hymn…
Two Poems | Ezeokafor Paschal
(cover photograph direction: Tobi Amida) Loss after Ted Kooser’s “After Years” That Eve, I saw you with him, & the yellowing leaves slowly dropping off the trees. From here, the…
Two Poems | Blessing Omeiza Ojo
(cover photograph direction: Tobi Amida) Bullet /ˈbʊl.ɪt/ ––noun A ball of lead or other metal, used in firearms of small calibre; now often conical. Typography. A printed symbol in the…
promise in my country is another way of gambling lives | Ismail Yusuf Olumoh
(cover photograph direction: Tobi Amida) promise is another way of drawing bloodlines. & in my country, we all have a way…
Transit | Anthony Chibueze Ukwuoma
(cover photograph direction: Tobi Amida) I am on the bus from Owerri where I just concluded my undergraduate studies. The driver stalls the engine at Banana Junction in Orlu, where…
I Call Upon Your Name | Damilola Oyedeji
(cover photograph direction: Victor Akhere) i. Sixth Sense or Does your Mother Know? My clearest memory of you is from the braider shop. It’s the most living form of you…
Pulling Dawn | Editorial
When Yusuf Olumoh describes silence in his immersive poem as “a language of joy,” he speaks towards a broader smear of postcolonial rage. In his poem, “promise in my country…
The Soulful Empathy of Niq Mhlongo: In Conversation
Niq Mhlongo is a South African novelist, short story writer, travel journalist, essayist, editor, and educator who graduated from Wits University with a BA degree (African Literature and Political Studies)…