more astute perhaps.
Your pockets sag with whys.
You give all to mum as gift,
she would mould them into a meal for Apate.
You sit as you watch your whys fall off
her lips, one then another like dominoes.
You watch them splatter like snowflakes as
they land with bare body on cobblestones.
Why the dark hallway has ghosts walking
behind you on eerie nights:
They are righteous ghosts watching your back.
They know the hallway is scary.
Why your head goes blank when it’s most needed:
It’s demons dining on your brains,
making a mockery of you.
Why your neighbour’s dog never
stops barking at night:
It’s blessed with eyes beyond what you see.
You grow sick
and almost lose it.
You still hold it.
You are flummoxed,
how could God be so careless?
A dog, special eyes,
so much carelessness.
Why the car kissed the couple to death,
leaving an innocent infant to the world:
God knows all, beginning from the end.
You don’t feel you
can hold it anymore.
So much burst, a splinter in your nerves.
God must be wicked,
he is no good man.
But your pockets still
sag with more whys.
Lukpata Lomba Joseph lives in Southern Nigeria. He is a contributing writer for Joshua’s Truth Magazine. Many of his poems explore the concept of internal noise in diverse forms. His work has appeared in FourXFour Poetry Journal, Caustic Frolic Literary Journal, Still Point Literary Magazine, I am not a silent poet, Vox Poetica and elsewhere. He is currently studying at the University of Port Harcourt. Lukpata loves reading Aesop’s Fables. You can find him on Facebook through facebook.com/lukpata.joseph.9. He is also available on Twitter as @lukpatalomba.
