Emmanuel Ojeikhodion
Self-portrait As a Bird
perhaps when I break into the wings of a bird,
I won’t dream of returning back to this body.
I’ll take over the air & sky & name my body a
paper plane undulating into grace. I slice a portion
of the air & make an experiment. I’m a specimen
& the air wears me a badge of recognition & initiates me
into the home of feathers. Wonder why I dream to
be a bird? The land is sometimes poisonous & everywhere
except the air approaches you with a sting. I fear what might
become of me every single day I spend here. It’s as if
the universe is deaf; it’s as if God is distracted to realize
when you suffer. I walk towards the path of light
& a shadow keeps falling in my direction. In an
unlit room I rummage my eyes in a broth of tears. Who
listens when the heart meanders through grief? Do we go
on to fill a body with sand whose bones still quake to live more?
We ignore a body dying of something as if to say we
bear mountains within us. Something must kill a man
but in what way do we come out alive?
Brother, I tell you there is nothing sweeter than the
wind pulling me into a bird.
I won’t dream of returning back to this body.
I’ll take over the air & sky & name my body a
paper plane undulating into grace. I slice a portion
of the air & make an experiment. I’m a specimen
& the air wears me a badge of recognition & initiates me
into the home of feathers. Wonder why I dream to
be a bird? The land is sometimes poisonous & everywhere
except the air approaches you with a sting. I fear what might
become of me every single day I spend here. It’s as if
the universe is deaf; it’s as if God is distracted to realize
when you suffer. I walk towards the path of light
& a shadow keeps falling in my direction. In an
unlit room I rummage my eyes in a broth of tears. Who
listens when the heart meanders through grief? Do we go
on to fill a body with sand whose bones still quake to live more?
We ignore a body dying of something as if to say we
bear mountains within us. Something must kill a man
but in what way do we come out alive?
Brother, I tell you there is nothing sweeter than the
wind pulling me into a bird.
Biography
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Emmanuel Ojeikhodion (he/him) is a Nigerian Writer and Poet and Author of a A Loss in September (Ghost City Press, 2021). He's an Alumnus of the Transcendence Poetry Masterclass and a fellow of the Elsa Creative Writers Workshop, University of Benin. His work has appeared in Strange Horizon, The Hellebore, Sledgehammer, The Augment Review, Capsule stories, The Lagos Review & elsewhere. He's visible on Twitter as @hermynuel and Instagram @Itz_wordsworth.
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