As the Keke Marwa slows, I feel my heart quicken. The driver gestures impatiently at the quaint building that stands beyond an ornamental metal picket fence, heralded by a modern cyclic driveway,…
Bridges
Our children are bridges, structures made out of love, blood, flesh, and bone, connecting us to the past, hinging us to the future. It is too early for me to be awake so…
Simon Says
The train ride into the city is an hour long and sometimes delayed because the Metro North, more than 50 years after its inception, still hasn’t quite yet figured out how to…
Unsent
Dear Michelle, I have written this letter in my head a million times, and in this final attempt to put these words down on paper, I will write it no matter what.…
Oba Awon Okun
I had always felt a call for the beach. This wasn’t the normal wanting to be moved by and caressed by a moving encompassing being that enveloped you completely and threatened to…
Two Half Loaves
It was 5:30 again. Time to carry his mom’s prized wares of home-made perfumes, air fresheners and insecticides to Nung-Udoe market for her again. He didn’t need an alarm to get up;…
Kin
The book lying open in her palm was a light paper back, but she held on to it as though it were leaden weights. She licked her finger, turned a page and…
Tous Les Memes
Like a celebration of peacocks, the musicians fanned their colourful chords, spreading them out into the garlanded street in whorls that contorted spines and shuffled gleaming shoes. The bass guitarist was a…
The Seer
Nigeria, The year 2062 The dream was the same as last night’s. Her standing in a white wrapper soaked knee-deep in an endless ocean. She looked towards the sky at the blinding…
THIS HOUSE
Everything that happened, happened in this house. A riverine demon was cast from Sade. Pastor Oben pressed her resisting head with both hands. Next, she was falling and screaming and gnashing her…