John Chinaka Onyeche // BASKET OF NEGLECT // Poetry

  

John Chinaka Onyeche

 

 

BASKET OF NEGLECT 

 

today's undone work is axed 

into oblivion by the chores 

that thud on it tomorrow 

and spit it in the basket of neglect 

Lenrie Peters 

today, the world is misty-seeing, 

the bloodbath traversing of history: 

from her window, she watches, 

the harming of her own before ideologies. 

& she sat there, whispering, defend; 

 

defend yourself against your invaders, 

& invade your invaders & defend yourselves, 

where our humanity is questioned.

 

indeed, the world embodies blind-observance. 

if we neglect the lives of the innocents, 

today it is Gaza, tomorrow it might be you: 

if we keep basking in this basket of neglect, 

the same was the genocide we called the Holocaust, 

same we will be called by generations to come. 

now & hereafter, the world dwells in darkness. 

 

 

 

 

•

 

SILENT IN SUDAN: A CITY NAMED AFTER A GOD

 

If you come back home alive, as rhyme returns, unharmed, say to yourself, Thank you! 

- Mahmoud Darwish 

There is a city named after a god,

But its inhabitants know no divinity.

Every day they beg the man on the seat:

Shall we live the next?

Or should we become child soldiers?

 

& god said:

Let us make our brothers

In the likeness of rubbles,

& justifying our fits of anger

Over our humanity.

 

& there was an evening,

A rocket sounds in Sudan,

& our humanity lay in waste,

& the world remembered them not,

But in silence & silent in Sudan.

•

John Chinaka Onyeche is a Nigerian writer (BIPOC) and historian from Etche in Rivers State. A graduate of history and diplomatic studies. He serves as a poetry curator with Port Harcourt Literary Review. While he is dedicated to ensuring that the full scope of history is accurately represented poetically. John lately writes about family, separation and death of loved ones. His writing can be found in various journals, including; Meddlebury Institute of International Studies, York Literary Review of York St John University, Protagonist Journal of Charles University Prague, Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival, Rigorous, Ebedi Review, Overtly Lit, The Shallow Tales Review, McNeese State University, Pier Review University of Brighton, Tilted House Journal, Akewi Magazine, Brittle Paper and forthcoming on Akpata Review. Best of Net, 2022, Pushcart, 2023. 

Connect with him on Twitter @Apostlejohnchin