Tonight I am posting two prose poems by Isaac Melchizedek, a young poet and editor from Nigeria.
Love Poem
I have
heard you call my head a skull of hostile waters. But I smiled. I love you all
the same. Fire, dear, although is the perfect word to use; burns into love. Love
into you. You into a manicured goddess.
There
is a poster of Mary in my dormitory sucking her kid, just by the stairs down
dark alleys where virgins employ hands to clean their virgingates.
As
long as 'stupid' 'rubbish' 'asshole' 'fool' are flowery words in our love language,
I'll love you, my precious fool. As long as we meet not to discuss the weight, size,
depth, or paint that covers the face of forever, I'll love your rusting gate
too. I'll be a hitler for you, I'll be madness itself.
Sewing
I
hemmed streets of naked citizens round my favourite dress to show the world I
care. A flesh ridden girl sewed not far from my sleeveless arm, her mother's
corpse, sweeping the ground. I wanted to squeeze her into a jug of honey, rid
her of haunting memories. She reminds me of oceans with faceless bodies. She reminds
me of mother, with her face of contoured hells.
Some
histories are penned alone with black inked blood.
I'll
be wearing their fears to sleep tonight. Lest echoes of raindrops, weary of
love, decides to empty itself of waters. Lest, UNICEF decides to dash this sad
girl teeth to bit off her own head
I'll be wearing her people's
story as a ceremony to church this Sunday. I hope my cologne wouldn't kill their
hopes, my bad breath wouldn't make them think of me as home. I am a journey. A yellow
thread.
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I'm going to post some videos from a YouTube playlist "Nigerian Afro Jazz," starting with Fela Kuti's "Fogo Fogo."
Here is Bola Johnson's "Lagos Sisi": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRC2DKklxGc&index=2&list=PLbTA18zguD0qJKXCZ5kKgWYiWhx57xZZB
The Tony Benson Sextet plays "Ugali": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZglTeIfnkSI&index=5&list=PLbTA18zguD0qJKXCZ5kKgWYiWhx57xZZB
I'll finish with Celestine Ukwu's "Asili": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5PHuEK1d7Y&list=PLbTA18zguD0qJKXCZ5kKgWYiWhx57xZZB&index=6
Too many lines to list that I loved. Too many
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