INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
Laszlo Slomovits
Alan Britt
Tolu Ogunlesi
Paul B. Roth
Gerald Clark
Dike Okoro
Jerry Blanton
Felino Soriano
Joanie Freeman
Steve Barfield
Shuta Crum
Running Cub
Odimegwn Onwumere
Duane Locke
Chris Lord
Fred Wolven
Nona Giorgadze
Bobby Steve Baker
Brandon S. Ray
satnrose
Serena Trome
Paul Handley
Kanev Peycho
George Moore
R. Jay Slais
Carol Smallwood
Forget the harmattan.
Its foggy dance mocks the joy of daylight.
Wali is dead. Autumn gaggles in the noontide;
Grief is the leak in the mind's vessel.
Forget the stray rooster subdued by its own dirge
on the streets of Rumuigbo.
Wali is dead. This evening shadows walk,
Wobbling while talking blues.
Speeding cars slash open silence.
In a flat across a narrow road,
Fela's Coffin for Head of State keeps
Heads nodding, on the same eve
butchers of a dream have left
yet another dirt in Port Harcourt's stream.
*Rubuigbo: Hometown of the slain writer
*Obi Wali: renowned African scholar and literary icon from Nigeria
*Coffin for Head of State: reference to Fela Kuti's satiric song sang for corrupt leaders
IT IS
It is the mystery of night
That makes the owl blind in daylight.
Knowing this only makes it easier
To understand the motivation
Of the dog howling at the moon.
Dike Okoro, Chicago; Port Harcourt, Nigeria