Small Mecca | Mariam Hassan
There is a man, silent as a stare He whispers assalamalaikum through morose breath, eyes galactic, heaven brown Wedged between his teeth is the charm every black boy…
At Luthuli, One Boy Hums the Tune of John Brown’s Song | Frank Njugi
Across a storefront, he peers at the faltering minds in springtime, & hears low chatters of baritone voices, from those who walk with high-handed grace. The boy that holds…
Whitebird | Olusoji Obebe
on a morning, whitebird greets the window of my room with soft sweet songs, from a nearby tree. but my appearance has stirred up a startle. so she flutters, making…
The Slide | Omidire Joshua Idowu
a brother slides back into the mire. thunder strikes. teeth clack; tongues wiggle. he stands naked at the eye of today’s sermon’s vortex. this is what the lamb’s wife does…
Blue Moon on the Tongue | Emman Usman Shehu
A blue moon is not found in a mouth that harbours a tongue restlessly showcasing the voice it orchestrates where there are ears or not within a listening distance.…
Lagos Boys, Rat Race | Adedokun Ibrahim Anwar
In Lagos, bodies roam with worries on their tails like predators after their prey. In hawking sachets of water, every sweat that drops traces a line back to the…
We Could Have Phrased Goodbye Differently, & We Love in Transit | Kuln’Zu
We Could Have Phrased Goodbye Differently I am having a relationship with a sentence that blooms unsure with summer heat, it asks: what if? Cold mornings, bird-songed early in…
A Language We Do Not Speak | Fatihah Quadri Eniola
After the sleep of the hibiscus, the world opens its hands to sunshine – Romeo Oriogun In the house where the children now paint white with the consistency of joy,…
Threnodies for Black Flowerboys | Tobun Pelumi
—for boys cremated, till they become an inscription of graveyard I. the boy next door clenches his libido within his mouth & gurgles it down his…
I will grow you into a poem | Babatunde Waliyullah Adesokan
hoping you seed into a mimosa that opens to only my touch hoping I could fetch from your shy fern a goblin full of honey hoping your soil…