Sacrament // Emmanuel G G Yamba // Poetry
Sacrament
drew us together, and knowing what
the body wanted, I tied myself to you like
a palm-wine tapper to a tree. We discovered
another teaching: baptism the only way
into this kingdom, I submerged into you. Our
bodies became a temple of lust, and
as the spirit of oneness dwelled in us, we
glorified it. Knowing how careful you were
not to make a disciple of yourself, I let you
gently push me onto my back. Something
white—enough to turn scarlet into snow—rolled from you to my belly, down to the sheet, like
oil pouring down Aaron’s head, his beard, his garment.
Emmanuel G. G. Yamba is a Liberian writer. His writing has been featured in Pepper Coast Mag, SprinNG, Akpata Magazine, Akowdee, African Writer Magazine, Kalahari Review, The Muse, and elsewhere.
He was the second runner-up in the 2023 Liberia Association of Writers (LAW) Essay Competition, winner of the 2024 Abu Sherif Poetry Prize, second-place winner of the 2024 Pengician Chapbook Prize, and a finalist for both the 2024 Poetry Journal Prize and the 2025 Quickbite Poetry Prize. He is also BOTN nominee 2026.