Poetry: A Man Dies in Different Ways by Nnadi Samuel

-Two moons ago; we bleached the sky into a flush of scarlet baobab..
-squeeze trunks of her tears, their branches heavy with rain..
-sunbathed her drenched memories into lumps of cloud..
-before drying her on the continent of our mouth..

a man dies in different ways..
& his coffin is this world; the way he carries her in his breast pocket..

the other day we held a young man from falling off the chimney of our lips..
yesterday it was our neighbour’s child..
plucking unripe helium from the planet on his body..
today it is my sister; counting strands of the star with her naked navel..

before she laid, crying into the thighs of this earth..
the aroma of her tears mutilated into a frozen stench..
that demarcates the soil..
like the cracks on a soggy dessert..

you do not know how the earth quakes..
or how it’s mulatto grains envelopes her silhouette..
or how she is stuck in the body of just this letter..

the Dee in death..

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Nnadi Samuel is a student of University of Benin, studying English and Literature. His works have appeared on Libretto Magazine & a few others.