I Want to Sleep Nigeria Away

i want to sleep Nigeria away

shut out the noises in my head

blur out the drama in my heart

but how do you shut out the portrait of

your brother killed while pleading not to be killed?

how do you erase the loud innocence of that night?

the night your country exchanged guns & firing

for the now stained flag & peaceful anthem

how do you sleep after watching your sister swallowed by her home?

how, then, do you forget not

to point your left finger towards home?

i want to sleep Nigeria away

because my ears hurt from stories of needless deaths by SARS Men

my heart quakes from breaking bit by bit

but I do not find solace in sleep

this nightmare scares me away

and i soon jolt awake still here in a country

my country that swallows its own, drowns its own

because they are crowned & drunk

in the liquor of power.

Rahma O. Jimoh

is a writer and nature photographer. She loves to write on humanity, identity and politics. She’s a lover of nature, photography and tourism. She has been published or forthcoming in Feral, Versification, Serotonin and other literary journals. She was a joint winner, PIN 10-day poetry challenge, 2019; Second runner up in the Poesy writers contest, 2018, and recently shortlisted as top ten in the Hysteria Writing Contest, 2020. She is Poetry Editor for The Quills and Contributor at Best of Africa. She hopes her works would leave an impact on hearts and footprints on the sand of time. She’s on Facebook @Rahma O. Jimoh, IG/Twitter: DynamicRahma.

Cover image credit: Tosin Taiwo