ABIA IS THE ONLY STATE MENTIONED IN THE BIBLE, CORONAVIRUS WILL PASS US BY: ONE DAY WE WILL ALL WAKE UP AS CLOWNS
Where I’m from there is something in the water—a
different kind of ghost. Even the sun cannot tell her
own shadow from a priest’s.
On the news, there’s Italy. Bodies stop to smell
like incense when silence comes knocking. Someone
is saying: do not go near a wall else you will become one.
In my country there’s sun, and a man carrying a stone
is about to part this water; you will hear a thousand
hallelujahs but no one will notice the little things
that tickle his face. No one.
Where I’m from there is a wrecking ball in the
wind, the rains made it here.
Soon the water will be full of prophets.
I want to know: who with lightning in his
throat will mock an olive tree?
Soon the water will be full of dancers, no one
can tell when, but can you now see how the sun fades?
—from Poets Respond
April 5, 2020
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Anthony Okpunor: “As the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic cuts across the globe, it is beyond a fact that the virus kills. In Italy, there are bodies piling up by the hour. The statement in the title of this poem was made by a state leader in Nigeria. It is funny how many Africans think religion is the answer to everything. At the moment better measures are being taken to prevent the outbreak of the virus in that region, and in all parts of the country. It would hurt no one if those measures were the first thing that came to mind.”
