1 poem

ude Ogbodo Okereke

The unreal reality

Even in the void of this evasive reality,
even in this ebb
that searches for self in a lost path,
tapered by tapering taps of tyranny;
palm frond is a war totem.

Even in the sleepy pat
of opium stripped of duty,
an unreal reality—a naked dot
in the center of a circle—
teeters at the death-dance
a friendly python draws her into.
She grapples with the snake-king
and cries out from the pain of its snap…

Do not gloat.
From the subdued sole of the soul,
grows a wish that foreshadows
forever.
The unreal reality seeks solace
in the thorny laps of dignity.
And where it is buried, chaos is born.