My family died in a fire wreckage when i was six

Tonight, i lit a bonfire before me.

I plant a stare till the faces of my family appear like fireflies.

At age six, my eyes knew the gallery of fire.

I saw how bodies fell & melted away like candle wax.

I was named after a city with many tombs.

I glow in aloneness amid the rhythm of those burnt bodies

I tried once setting my body ablaze to know the definition of fire.

Perhaps I was the only song left in God’s head.

My tongue carries the salt of an archipelago.

It vacates my mouth to taste the scars on my body.

a friend once told me that i may never contain sweetness.

At age twenty-one, I wish to name this body a fallen object

from the sky and ask God why his wings are so brittle to

clasp me.

Emmanuel Ojeikhodion - Nigeria