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 best; hack down her struggling soldiers

and kiss the canines of warring wolves.

Ayinke’s bulgy belly is refrain of choir’s latest gig

she can’t lay a finger on the father of the fetus; the saints thus

usher her into wilderness with

ferocious verses dripping with scorn and slur.

the sermoner’s roar grows into a ginormous hand

picks the best of the wounded and feeds them

to the yawning maw of the ravenous streets.

a stinking beggar, bowl in hand, glues her ears to the

lips of the church, eager to hear the clank of kindness

dropped in her metal bowl. silence. a shepherd hits her feet with his

sturdy staff; she’s bad news to the brand’s puffing ego.

somewhere… a lost man fumbles into a synagogue

in search of water and pillow. but someone… half-human-half-beast

offers him stone for bread, blood for water, and a fiery arrow.

…in the throes of death, he crawls his way to Golgotha

where the bridegroom awaits his bride.

Omidire Joshua Idowu

is a poet, editor, and social media strategist. His poems have appeared in SpringNG, Nnoko Stories, Footmarks, Our Legacy of Madness, and The Sky is our Earth: Anthology of 50 young Nigerian Poets. He was the winner of professor Eruvbetine’s poetry prize. He also won the Professor Hope Eghagha’s Drama prize in 2012. He has been published in Pulse, Ynaija, Praxis, Literary Horizon: An International Peer-Reviewed English Journal, etc. He loves reading books, listening to music, and tapping inspiration from ordinary sights. He toys with lines, colours, and shapes in his quiet moments.