issue three / reverie
AUTOPSY OF A DEAD MOON
Okoronkwo Chisom
spasms of anger hit you at the entrance
of the cave that gulps your brother's body.
you dissect his remains for an autopsy
& the postmortem vomits the ravenous
bullet that ate his life. it leers at you.
say, it longs to transmute you into something
that satiates the hunger of another coffin.
in the hospital, where you've gone to treat the
cataract in your future, you see your brother
roaming the wards, searching for an empty
body to name a home. you guillotine your fears
& point his specter to the exit of your country's abyss. time flips a page to see
you standing at the
doorpost of patience–waiting for science to
amputate the gangrenous hands of death.
your patience gets exhausted as another
bullet escapes your country's mouth to
squeeze your neighbor like an orange.
at night, the moon silhouettes your longing
for your brother's body till it dies of light.
to witness daybreak, you crawl into the
light of his memories. in the morning,
you'd dab your eyes with birdsongs, to
flatten the sty it has gotten from seeing
too many cadavers. but, it never heals.
of the cave that gulps your brother's body.
you dissect his remains for an autopsy
& the postmortem vomits the ravenous
bullet that ate his life. it leers at you.
say, it longs to transmute you into something
that satiates the hunger of another coffin.
in the hospital, where you've gone to treat the
cataract in your future, you see your brother
roaming the wards, searching for an empty
body to name a home. you guillotine your fears
& point his specter to the exit of your country's abyss. time flips a page to see
you standing at the
doorpost of patience–waiting for science to
amputate the gangrenous hands of death.
your patience gets exhausted as another
bullet escapes your country's mouth to
squeeze your neighbor like an orange.
at night, the moon silhouettes your longing
for your brother's body till it dies of light.
to witness daybreak, you crawl into the
light of his memories. in the morning,
you'd dab your eyes with birdsongs, to
flatten the sty it has gotten from seeing
too many cadavers. but, it never heals.
Okoronkwo Chisom is the winner of the Shuzia "Journey of the Soul" poetry competition 2023. Her works have been published in PoetryColumn, Blue Marble Review, Nigerian Review, Icreatives Review, Isele Magazine, World Voices Magazine, New Man Gospel Magazine, Shuzia, BPPC anthology, and elsewhere. She's a fresh first-class graduate of English Language and Literature who has been shortlisted in the Vweta Chadwick Poetry Prize 2023 and the Eriata Oribhabor Poetry Prize 2022, African Feminist Writing Contest 2022, YouthHubAfrica FGM contest, September Edition, 2022, BKPW and Splendours of Dawn Poetry Contest. She tweets @ChisomAchiever