*Onishe
 
                      Let me be the egg bearing the
                         stench of stillbirth
                     Let me be the blood bleeding before
                         the oracle
 
 
                     I may be the white yam ringed with cowries
                     I may be the lone voice piercing the
                        path of fear
 
 
                     Let me be the calabash
                        bearing totems at the cross-road
                          of death.
 
 
                    *The river goddess of Asaba people in Delta State.
 
 
 
 
 
                 Cathedrals
 
                     It’s Sunday morning
                     solitary fields stretch
                     from here to tips of skies
                     birds chorus on whistling pines
 
 
                     It’s Sunday morning
                     masses amass for mass
                     sounds of distant chaos
                     rip the altar cloth
                     But Father Monu battles
                     with communion and crosses
 
 
                     It’s Sunday morning
                     Myraid echoes;
                            Bread, blood
                            Water, wine
                            Purgatory, purgation
                            Contrition, confession
                            Chalice, chaplet
                            Sacrament, sacriledge
                            Sin, saint
                            Salvation, devotion
                     come crashing through stained glasses
 
 
                    It’s Sunday morning, summoning souls
                    To the graveyard of resurrection.