nigerian poetry

Shore-gazing – Praise Osawaru

Praise Osawaru (he/him) is a writer of Bini descent. A Best of the Net, Pushcart Prize, and Nina Riggs Poetry Award nominee….

How to Tell My Body I Love You – JoeMario Umana

after Georgia Ifunaya’s Self-Love  running waterfrom the showerbecomes hands& crawl my skinlike cover crops over soil, planting a million pimples on my body—a land fertilewith want. I slide into the tunnelof my left palm’s indexand thumb, slippery like okra’s drawmade from soap and water. this…

Thoughts about Tension – Blessing Obiahu

Tension should not be the umbrella word for that jolt that reverberates through your bones and skin when you brush a live wire on a day IKEDC forgets to flick the switch off in your zone because it does more…

Osholonge – Onoberhie Janet Ojevwe

A street divided by both the doers and the saintsA street divided by the houses: dilapidated and well structured Divided by different tongues, practices and beliefsTime to time, blue and red sirens come visiting With full force, taking into captivity the doers…

Two Poems by Mercy Musa

A Body Performing a Disappearing Act Like lace dipped in vinegar sorrowthe nature of my narcissism is translucent,this body, almost transparent, almost fading to nothingthis skin, almost disappearing, almost syncing to dust If only I could hold light in the…

Night song – Abdulrazaq Salihu 

after Sylvia Plath The rusty blood of brown blades Set your body to rest like bean seed In dry soil — decay.My small palms lay  5 inches  too smallTo hold your shoulders and the soft-Cracked air the night flushes in.An ode starts…

I Will Remember Your Name – Mayor Prosper Ihechi

Because the seers follow you across lifetimes. I am dreaming, and in my dream, we are together again, Temisola- the girl I can no longer remember, you. There is no face. All that remains is a voice, scratchy, like a…

Christening of Peculiar Things – Oliaku Wisdom Ikechukwu 

Call the world how it unfolds,a feeble, starving petal growing in your blistered palmstowards the sun, from the spaces between your fingers where mine used to intertwine.Call my love how it reaches,this nimble, persistent thing floating in an oceanof hurt inside…

‘The Past Future War’ & ‘Mane’ – Mark Kennedy Nsereko

(Use desktop mode to get the best visual experience of Mark’s poems) The Past Future War                 the oldies think they’re gold                                    the futures…

Signs – Nozhan Resalati

Nozhan Resalati is a writer and an ESL teacher based in Iran. He writes short stories, flash fiction, nonfiction, and plays.