Precious Okpechi
Hund's Rule of Degenerate Living
in this town, small with degenerate
lives, mother said – everything comes
back to you; from the star
that greets new born children
to the feeling of being here before, suppose
we all have. the world is a circadian
rhythm; we must love till death loves
us back – fierce. I understood mother
meant this as a thumb rule: our living
must be singly filled before we are
paired – but having an identical twin
that’s only parallel in another universe
didn’t feel like a shell I wanted to be
my address. because this town,
as I later grasped, had so many shells
out there, ones I got excited into, with
just enough energy to keep me unpaired,
until death could love me back tender
the way I kissed him the first time.
lives, mother said – everything comes
back to you; from the star
that greets new born children
to the feeling of being here before, suppose
we all have. the world is a circadian
rhythm; we must love till death loves
us back – fierce. I understood mother
meant this as a thumb rule: our living
must be singly filled before we are
paired – but having an identical twin
that’s only parallel in another universe
didn’t feel like a shell I wanted to be
my address. because this town,
as I later grasped, had so many shells
out there, ones I got excited into, with
just enough energy to keep me unpaired,
until death could love me back tender
the way I kissed him the first time.
Biography
Precious Okpechi studies Biochemistry at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. His work has appeared in Brittle Paper, Praxis Magazine, Nthanda Review, The Muse, and is forthcoming in 20.35 Africa: An Anthology of Poetry. He is currently the Custodian of The Writers’ Community (TWC), University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
Twitter: @OkpechiPrecious Instagram: @p_okpechi |