Mercy Musa // Winner,  Joseph and Eunice Igbokwe Memorial Foundation Prize for Pidgin Poetry, 2024

i no fit again

As una don see me so, my body don tire—

i no fit again, all dis battle wey I don dey fight

e don tire me, how person go dey fight, dey struggle

still nothing go show? mama talk say make i chase after my dreams,

but as i dey chase after am, e dey run, if i catch am small like dis,

e go just disappear. whenever sun reason say make e stay up

for sky small, na when my demons dem dey always show face—

hungry dey always catch dem, no be say me sef don chop na!

papa too go dey talk say make i count my blessings—

1, 2, 3, i count am; 1, 2, i count am again; 1, i count am; 0, i count am again

which blessings i dey count sef? anytime I see small blessing hold

for hand, e be like water wey dey pour for basket, e no dey ever stay

as una see me so, my body don tire finish.

i no fit again, i not fit dey chase broken dreams and falling stars again.

i no fit.

Mercy Musa is an emerging Nigerian writer, an artist and also a student of mass communication in Adekunle Ajasin University, Ondo state. She is a lover of African literature and fantasy books, when she is not writing, she is either drawing, reading or listening to good classical music.