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
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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 |
