by Ikechukwu Obiorah
Peg leg on the flat of mat and make the mirror
Gawk with a mooning vacuum at the ceiling of
The sky, the valve of nerve might get drawn by
the acrid puff evoked by the incipient violence
Of Coronavirus; the unseen enemy of mankind,
Dancing Chilimando of the waist over the map.
In view of this kairotic crack every naked ape is
Hung on thick cobweb sof quarantine quandary,
Watching bed bugs scurrying beneath the dignity
Of mattresses, and cockroaches selling tubers of
Yam in the black market of toilet tables and pews.
There is a crevice of fracture on every wall of breath,
Every room is now a shrine to a happy ancient history,
Cheesy stench of decaying muscle has filled the air tube,
Cancer of anger is now a dancer of the tired ancestors,
The delta of mouth can no longer stifle original laughter.
The unseen enemy of mankind blends in the background,
Panning and hammering a clique of crowd to a downfall,
The turbid flecks of blood and guts in her corona tongue
Defies several healing agents of therapeutic pharmacon,
The elfin fleshes in whiskers of hope are now turned to bone.
The world is now panting on the holy shoulder of heaven,
Invocating to win the war against this unseen but common
Enemy of mankind sucking blood like the suctorial birds,
Whilst the carnage of combat is still advancing, let all the
Breathing rooms button down the face of death in life.
Ikechukwu Obiorah is a Nigerian writer, a prolific poet, and a novelist. His poems have been published in Poetica 2019 by Clarendon House Publications, Spillwords Press, Ponders Series, Breaking Rules Publishing, Better Than Starbucks, Cajun Mutt Press, Active Muse Journal, Sage Cigarettes Magazine, Bradlaugh Fingers, the Nigerian magazine EroGospel, and others. Poetry has been his sweetheart for a decade.
