Somewhere in Nigeria

CW: war violence

From Kano  – to Borno, Katsina to 
Maiduguri, Jigawa to Minna. There's 

always a bereft mother who holds her faith 
so high – awaiting the emergence of her 

martyred son, –son whose body has been 
buried beneath fumes of war– son 

whose brittle fate has been shattered 
by blasts at the war front. Say: what else

does a gun (if aimed at a game) do
except to dislodge the soul off its case? 

At a church –in Owo–  on a wintry Sunday;
at the verge of saying the grace, gunmen

barricaded the Lord's house and buried bullets
of violence into bodies of innocent worshippers. 

The truth is: in these previous years, it's been
boko haram & fulani herdsmen' attack. But, 

today, we whimper bitterly, –shouldering
our loved ones' bodies out of the temple.