(for Fr. Felix Tyolaha, Fr. Joseph Gor, Mbalom and Naka)²

Unending by Ugwu Christian Chidubem

On a quiet dawn in Mbalom,

two priests and a congregation

become lambs slain on St. Ignatius’s altar

as camouflaged herders march through town.

Elsewhere, memory raises the pain of the transgressions

of suspicious herders turning River Benue’s waters to rich crimson.

Smokes accompany wails as pictures show many ends:

old souls sprawled in double pools of red and brown

shit and excreta dancing for attention with bullet-designed bodies…

roasted meat fills the air, a cannibal delight as charred flesh litter town

…and a suckling baby begins to lick the blood that slowly drips from her mother’s head

elsewhere, a child crawls from a bunker that is his father’s bulleted body

…and becomes a million scattered pieces shattered by a bomb.

²Frs Felix Tyolaha and Joseph Gor were assassinated alongside other parishioners by suspected herdsmen while during morning Mass at St. Ignatius, Mbalom. All over Benue, suspected herdsmen attacks are a regular occurrence with over 2000 people reportedly killed thus far.

Su’eddie Vershima Agema is a Nigerian poet, editor and literary administrator. He is also a culture promoter. Author of two poetry collections, Bring our Casket Home: Tales one Shouldn’t Tell, and Home Equals Holes: Tale of an Exile, a short story collection, The Bottom of Another Tale and the NLNG Nigeria prize for Literature 2022 nominated shortlisted book – Memory and the Call of Water.