Take a blade, sever a pair of veins
Watch the blood trickle. Visions of
Futures you know you will never know

Feel the orgasm of pain.
Pick a needle. dip it in blood
And slowly doodle your name
In calcifying scarlet letters

Do your imaginations hurt now?
You only feigned it and now
The blood flows, Christ-like
A voice calls out
Climb, crawl, run, get into yourself
You start to live when pain makes you smile.
Was it not for love that God killed his only son?
Why if not does water harden into ice?

You are several generations of untold stories
But while this one story lasts just breathe and feel enough.
You are enough.


Okpo, Friday Romanus
is currently in his final year, Department of English and Literary Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He is a critical writer. He edited critical Writing for Muse 46. He is the editor of The Muse, number 47. He is proudly impatient.