Fragment of the Rainy Season
As is
the case every year
Around the end of February,
The Harmattan season drifts away;
And the feverish sound of whirlwind
Jabbing at the serrated air en route
To its domicile of foment
A habitat of wistful elements
Of nature: Saharan fine dust,
Now painting every flesh
White-hued like Arctic frost;
Mediterranean mist,
Cool as pebbles of peppermint kiss;
North East Trade Winds,
That startled communion of accelerated air,
Swirling around where it moves,
The ground, clear brown, leaves no sand.
Chris Ulasi
The Chicks are Safe Tonight
This evening, in my town Nnewi,
the whirling air is filled with smell
of grilling palm kernel,
a smell I remember from childhood.
Sometimes I long to see the smell
in the air as the hawk veers
Over my head, and the chicks panic,
search their mother in a scurry
And think what an ignoble way to die.
will return home with them, perfectly
safe;
their fears eaten away by the night.
Chris Ulasi
Dr.
Chris Ulasi is a screenwriter, producer, and poet. He was from
1993-1996 journal editor and book editor of the Journal of
Nigerian Affairs formerly Conpo Review. He is the
Executive Editor of USAfrica, a community newspaper, and
The Black Business Journal both based in Houston. Since
1998, he has taught courses in Media, Culture & Society.
International Communication, Screenwriting, Film Theory,
Aesthetics, and Media Criticism at Texas Southern University’s
School of Communications.
A VIEW OF
FIRE
Salamanders
in ceremonial
red
driven by a
wicked wind
run furious
fingers
through brown
hair of hills.
THE CIRCLE
Screams dagger
silence Tears flow
Genuine
emotions mingle with the feigned
Like milk in
coffee.
We
Dine drink drum
dance
After crying.
With a heartful
of wind
We wean the
dead from the terrors of the sun:
Earth to earth
Dust to dust Wind to wind.
Time eats our
memories Even as we
Blame the dead
for dying
Time eats our
memories Even as we
Bleed to death
like an hourglass.
Emeka Agbayi
Agbayi, poet and consultant on strategic communication, is
the editor of Youth Heartbeat, the Peer Promoters’
newsletter.
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