i am at home
i tweet about how my country flows
with milk & honey mama sits by the window
knitting cardigans for my unborn brothers —
the colours of hydrangeas blooming in our garden
father sings along to the national anthem
playing on the radio
with love & strength & faith
we are at home
& there is
no bazooka metamorphosizing a home
into an idp camp no country b l e e d i n g
from every pore staining the soil the flag
the faces of citizens who sit at the Lekki tollgate
clamouring for peace pouring pleas into pleas
into leaky ears no mother packing un-
packing her dead children’s kindergraphs no
lichyard festooned with flaccid flowers no father
chanting requiems as antiphons to the national anthem
please don’t wake me from this dream
because here we are at home smiling breathing
& living
in our portable paradise where flowers bloom
with light & love.
Sodïq Oyèkànmí is a poet from West Africa. He enjoys writing poetry as he sees this as a therapeutic creative outlet. He co-judged the AKUKO Inaugural Literary Competition [Poetry Category] alongside Rosed Serrano. A Best of the Net nominee with works published in Poetry Wales, Pigeonholes, trampset, Olney Magazine, African Writer Magazine, Brittle Paper, Kalahari Review, and elsewhere. A wildflower who tweets @sodiqoyekan