DEATH QUERY
fifth reel today where a youtuber is selling a cliché. “you can conquer all”. truth. to brave a
crowd’s eyeballs, to yoga a boy child’s pains, to grapple with an LLB… indeed, i’m conquest
made breath. but see… can we ever learn to silence silence. can we ever learn to make
mortal immortal. to say to dust & ashes no more taking here. to decree “be gone” and grave is
gone. to render skull & crossbones picture of yesterday? exhorter, tell me, was it possible
that when the grim reaper came for dan’s mumi could have said to it “be gone” & it would
go & it would pocket its scythe, & flee? months back, my newsfeed went awash with a clip
of a popular actor being lowered sixwards… & each time, it was wails upon wails. no miracles,
just tears. & this is the power of death—stronger than the will of loved ones… this is the pain in
silencing. in the knowing that my six-year-old pupil ebuka will never sense my being again. to
kill the thing but not take its body… to leave your senses with the numbing presence of an ebuka
that cannot smile. & you can shake the shell all you like, the sound will always come from the
kernel. this is the all-conquering pain of death, dear youtuber.
—–
Silence—A Blood Test for the True God
a bomb blast story once ruptured its way into father’s tabloid, & i tucked my hope into God’s
breast pocket
this hour, somewhere to the left of suez canal is lab of countdowns. beep. beep. beep… noise.
silence
can war not happen? can man see no living soul to test his nuclear genius on?
& four thousand kilometres from golgotha, netizens call it holy war: Allah versus Jehovah
this is how we politicise blood. how we ask a newborn, one who has just come, to go back as a
martyr of his people’s God
let heaven disclaim to bigots that it has no hand in detonations
let heaven disclaim to bigots
that it is not looking to pool second red sea in middle east
& Lord, forgive my unbelief that alerts you every hour to tighten your grip over me…
forgive me—on my planet, they say death toll is the litmus test for the true God.
—–
Poems (c) Enobong Ernest Enobong
Image: Pixabay remixed