I Shall Say Nigeria, Then I Shall Show Him Ashes

What is the truth of love?
Everybody burns.

–Romeo Oriogun

This fire began in my heart then smoked

into my lover's.

Wrapped in bed like mating worms, thrusting, more fire,

more smoke, more sweat.

The room is a squared witness.

Outside, fire sweeps through the streets, starved of wood

and flesh. The people who ignite are the people who

once professed love for a country full of their mothers womb.

Here, it is easy to unlove, easiest to say it is not your country.

My lover knows pain. So do I.

We are both males eating berries in bed while

everything around us burns. It is how we say fire isn't always a flaming

yellow. It could be red, like berries. Like sex.

Tomorrow, a stranger shall ask my country without

moving his lips. I shall say Nigeria without moving my lips too.

Then, I shall show him ashes.

Bryan Joe Okwesili is a chocolate loving realist. A poet and storyteller keen on telling diverse African stories. He writes from Anambra, Nigeria. Winner Abubakar Gimba Prize for short fiction 2020(February). First runner up Defenestrationism Short Story Contest 2020.
His art have appeared on SmokeLong Quarterly (issue 69), Brittle Paper, Writers Space Africa, Lunaris, Expound, Kalahari Review, African Writers, Madness Muse Press, ARTmosterrific and elsewhere. He is currently a student of law at the University of Calabar, Calabar. You can follow him on Twitter: @meet_bryan_