Written By: Nwàohà Chíbúzor Anthony

The Poet, Nwàohà Chíbúzor Anthony tells a melancholic ‘story’ in the poem, “The First Twilight & the First Hand”. Love and loss, two powerful and universal themes are central in this piece. The emotion every line evokes is powerful!

In a bar & decayed monastery of Love,
the seed of anchored glory never prevails.
We waited ‘cos the night seems invisible
& the stars poking fun at the thatched roof of our bitterness.
In the bowl of wet prayer,
our slashed hearts were soaked & washed.
In the hide of sunbaked tears,
the memory of men & mothers sing with flaws
flaws & flaws
coined with the abysmal nakedness of poetry,
the surfaces of tongues begging not to be forgotten
& the numbness of squeezable minds died
beneath a raging cacophony.
The first twilight I see tonight
spins with a black tattered tuxedo
drunk & dusty & it preaches a gospel
saying:
“The first hand shall know the face of a pretty pudendum
but not the face of the sneaking whispers calling
from behind.”
I wish I had a mouth full of beautifully crafted
aubades that evoke the dusk & dawn & also,
the fullness of my body sitting in
the gloom of a broken moon.

Nwàohà Chíbúzor Anthony is a Nigerian poet who lives in Orlu, a glorious city in the Eastern part of Nigeria. His works have appeared in Praxis Magazine, Kalahari Review, and elsewhere.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels