Nweke Benard Okechukwu is a Nigerian poet and cosmetician. He has works in TOLTED house, Muse house, Sixthfinch, Eboquills, New Yorker, & others.

Autograph of July

& we are collecting the first rain with

    peevish hearts.

between the beginning & end of the year,

     you stand to strap your coffin.

do you care how a widow rotates on a night

     large bed alone?

in this poem, your wife is a black pencil on a

    map. tracing the origin to where the knife

separated your throat from your body

   like point-&-kill catfishes.

listen, she soils herself around the compound

   towards the veranda, & swears to jump into

six feet abyss with you.

    until a wake-up call of the ambush,

i melt into canned butter in the oven.

    because yesterday, i wrote your kinsmen adieu. 

& again, you stare at us in a cold bed.

     & this is me wearing fresh grief as an apron

hopeless is how a man folds himself in a

     rectangular box & journeys without promises of homecoming.

    They say it’s the norm for children to shovel

their father dust, but what can the tiny fingers

     carry in the iron contest?

i swear if i must lend cloth,

     i must keep away this funeral black vest;

hang it as a bar across our threshold.

it’s one way to remember a father journeys

     through night mob attack & not yet return.

Contributor’s Bio

Nweke Benard Okechukwu is a Nigerian poet. He writes from the metropolitan city of Onitsha where he studies Mass Communication at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka in Anambra State. He’s also a promising cosmetician. His works have appeared/ are forthcoming in TOLTED house, Muse house, Sixthfinch, Eboquills, New Yorker, & others.

Eboquills Ghostwriting Services

Are you a super-busy person who dreams to become an author? You do not need to wait until you retire from your regular 9-5 job to turn your author aspiration into a reality. Our ghostwriting services are here to help you achieve that. Sometimes, all it takes to be an author is an idea. A single blockbuster idea!

Find out how Eboquills ghostwriting services can help you turn your idea into a bestseller, here!