returning home
for omar
my first view of you is
of our waters
peeping through dark clouds
some dark dawn
they say dark clouds are an omen
their quiver full of arrows of pain
and waters are worse
when one cannot swim
we have floundered through the years
you and i who neither swim nor sow
who till a farm in the air, who
watch from our perch on a rock
waters rise over farmlands
drown rivers, roads, even
bridges drown roots, drown
that last fading harvest
we flounder still, you and i
seeking footholds, we grab at
drifting clouds, fall off our
limited sky and sink
sink, all of us, sink
with every dark cloud, every
drone of fear, every click
of a seatbelt that holds us
down, immobilised, not moving
forward
we go down, all of us
with the stubborn dream that
some day
we would land on solid ground.
Arlington
autumn grows old on me
weary leaves, cold sidewalks
and creaky trees leaning on bent canes
i grow old with it, weary from running mile
after mile, my head crowned with
its many changing hairs like this city
the chill clasps mean fingers round my throat
it is the only drink i offer arlington
brutal host with scarce a smile
i have nothing to smile about, so i stare back
tears forming, heart unfeeling, hands stuck deep
into deeper pockets where the last coins
tell you how far from home you are
it is strange how sometimes you cry without feeling
like meat thawing, losing its arrogance
benumbed more from fears of the unknown
than these stark reminders that slowly
inevitably
everything finds its way home
you think of home when everything is strangely
suffocating, when duvets are not enough
you think of growing old
when all around you leaves brown, trees
undress, reveal their bare limbs
grey mourning, grey mornings reveal
as we inch slowly, slowly, to our destination
home comes soon enough for those who grow old
and weary from all the miles run, all the trees
that drop their weary souls on you, like wreath
awaiting the rebirth of a season, awaiting
a new place.
Chijioke Amu-Nnadi is a prolific poet and a winner of the Association of Nigerian Authors Prize for Poetry. He lives and writes from Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.
