A Birth-Day Wish

This Moment between your
Birth
When the letters of divine
That bear your name
Began heart-thumping
and your
Death
When the Author of the
Book
Whose letters you now live
out
Shall bid you thither
May the Maker of the Vine
Which sober makes the busy mind
Adorn your table with tumblers,
with gourds and with jars
With tumblers and gourd and
jars
Of merry-making, sober-setting
wine of the Vine
And make your passage
A placid sail on this turbulent
ocean

Night

You’re the dearest friend of the feet
For you keep them at rest
With a pillow for the head
When you bid the eye close
For a pretty world, ‘yond to see.
Yet,
At your heart lives
The exalted plague of the soul
For such folks
Who plant their sun on your head

Ginikachi C. Uzoma studied English and Literary at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He contributed “A Birth-Day Wish” and “Night,” to The Muse No. 43