Isidore Emeka Uzoatu

Isidore Emeka Uzoatu majored in the history of African Christianity at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Converted to creative writing by his elder brother, he abandoned his doctorate for stints on the staff of Crown Prince, Nigeria's pioneer male magazine, and Mister, its follow-up, in Lagos. He edited the latter before retiring to full time writing and a daytime job managing a trading company in Onitsha. Vision Impossible, his first novel, took twenty years to complete. He is married with children.

Published on July 20, 2010

I come birth-pang plain:
cards blinded by the full moon
hands clean of silt
tongue untied
loins loose
fly undone…

VOICE SEARCH

Heads light like evening breeze

We traverse the corrugated roads of creation –

Me and you –

With only the moon for company

Our propinquity hinge perilously

On a never before attained perigee

Propelled by pent-up passion

The promise debilitating

The premise devastating

Like birthday binge booze

Drank way past midnight’s knell

I come birth-pang plain:

cards blinded by the full moon

hands clean of silt

tongue untied

loins loose

fly undone…

Yet connection wavered aloof

Lest one voiced the wrong key

So near yet far away above

Bridged by lacking convictions

And as deep down under

Abridged by dwarfed expectations

Bound to unforeseen bottlenecks

That prelude after the periphery of doubt

Separating tyro from pro…

Till mustering all the courage

Of head-hunter forebears, I

Howl hyena-like at the distant moon

Sifting from the shifting echoes

Running the hills and valleys therein

The lucid timbre to call my own…

Only escape now

Is more often the zeal

Than the celebration anticipated

At its split second of birth

When the journey was yet

In the crib of its animation…