By Uche Nduka, Nigeria (Published in Issue 18)

I Live

i live in a traffic jam.

i live in a blank piece of paper.

the ship's first glance as martinis

find front runners. wingover:

these orderings shall never run out.

this proposal grows bolder. i want

to finger your potential.

these teeth on herbal sentences. i

wouldn't try if i didn't feel i

could outdo the sticks of dynamite.

bend this bar. regrease the semi-moon.

walk with waves. i touch love's

devilry without a stingy palate. between

two tomorrows a white orb.

--

Uche Nduka (b. October 14, 1963), is a Nigerian poet, essayist, songwriter and anthologist. Born and raised in Nigeria, he has lived in Holland, Germany and the U.S. He is the author of seven volumes of poems, a book of prose, and is the editor of two anthologies of poetry. Winner of the Association of Nigerian Authors Poetry Prize for 1997, some of his writings have been translated into Dutch, German, French and Serbo-Croatian. Until recently, he taught literature at the University of Bremen, Germany.

His latest volume of poems is titled eel on reef (Akashic Books, New York, 2007). Some new poems of his were published in The Recluse and Boog City this year. Nduka presently lives and works in New York City.

 

Walked and Fell

inhaled walked fell got his

soul overdressed; some people

set great store by this patch

of dawn; booted the roost,

power play in a rut; there

is nothing to do

but unweave the web; an imbroglio

fits into my tempo;

maybe you ask too much of

my composure; how dare you

say war ate those people; i say

it i repeat it count the missing bodies;

houses after straffing.

--

READ MORE OF UCHE'S WORK IN OUR SPECIAL WEST AFRICAN EDITION: AVAILABLE DECEMBER 2012.