BY DIKE OKORO
Copyright is held by the author.
I hear a river’s lament
& imagine dust clouds
swell all over the house.
As tears break from his eyes,
he pauses to show me
the shackle scars on his wrists.
I was not born when it happened,
the imprisonment that set
the narrative rolling.
He had been too accommodating
of friendships and knew
little about betrayal being
a double-edged sword
One night, while looking for a hideout
the soldiers arrived in a jeep.
A neighbour friend led them
to his hiding place. “Na him,
na the man be dis” They took him away
as mother wept.
“My son, may you never live
to witness a war” he says to me.
His stares glued to the curtain
revealing the moon,
as I wondered what to make
of history lessons like a Biafra story.
***
Dike Okoro is a Nigerian-American writer, recently published in Callaloo, Bellingham Review, Fiyah Magazine, Witness Magazine and Scarlet Leaf Review. A finalist for the Iliad Poetry Award (Library of Congress) and a finalist for the Cecile De Jongh Literary Award, Okoro is the author of four full-length poetry collections, including Homecoming (New and Selected Poems), In the Company of the Muse, and Dance of the Heart. His other books include (Essays) Futurism and the African Imagination: Literature and Other Arts, (Editor) Speaking for the Generations: Contemporary Short Stories from Africa, and (Editor) We Have Crossed Many Rivers: New Poetry from Africa.
Heartfelt read. Really well done.