When We Speak of Home
1
When we speak of home
We speak of casualties, speak of
Bodies falling into sunset.
We speak of places harboring
The remains of mass massacres,
Displayed by jungle justices.
We speak of cities, speak of streets
Littered with follicles of struggles
And houses razed by bullets and bombs.
2
When we speak of home
We speak of rancor, speak of
Feuds breaking bonds and borders.
We speak of violence shattering
The shreds of peace, and uproars
Disturbing the stillness of waters.
We speak of losses, speak of dirges
Resonating from unheard voices
Of masses nursing the wounds of war.
Voyages
my mother’s heart is a sea of chaos;
when she was twenty, a man launched into it,
thrust his arms of love into her boisterous waters
without cautions, without a watchful eye
and he became a seasick seafarer-
the one she tossed, turned and twisted
in tempestuous maritime storm.
In my father’s voyages, he has paddled
several meandrous seaways
and oared through scary odyssey,
even in strong swirls and turbulent tides;
but for his careful observation of the wind’s direction,
and the cautious study of the movement of sea waves
he would
have been long submerged
in the abyss of drowned dreams.
Ogedengbe Tolulope Impact is a multiple award-winning Nigerian poet. He is a chemical engineering graduate from the prestigious Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. His poem “Tell them” was a shortlisted poem at the 7th Korea-Nigeria poetry feast, 2017. His works have been published in Duane Poetree, Pangolin review, Amandasteelwriter, Words Rhymes & Rhythms, Literary planet, Wax poetry and art magazine, Parousia Magazine, Subsaharan magazine and elsewhere. He tweets @fruitfulimpact where he spreads himself into a song.