i saw fragment of voices
shuttered into pod of silence
i saw bloods smoling down
the flag of a dread nation
high pitch of groans. the living
lending breath to the dead

i saw bullets furled into slick of blood
some dreading voices shouting, End Sars!
where the moonlight descended
a girl’s shadow ran behind her body

i saw khaki men marching on the hungry soil
they faded into rubbles of darkness
wails steamed into wails. turbidity of fear.
hefty shrieks of sirens, casualties
hurled into ambulances like hefty bags of rice

meanwhile, in an enclosed darkness
a boy beside his mother’s corpse
used my bone to thump his mother
wake up mama, he said.

Ololade Akinlabi Ige is a young Nigerian poet. His poems have featured in Sabr Literary Magazine, Dissonance Magazine (UK), Voice Journal (USA), Teach. Write.(USA), Otherwise Engaged Literature and Engaged Journal (Mexico), Dyst Literary Journal (Australia), Northern Otter Press (Canada), 2020 anthology (Canada), Knight Literary Magazine (USA) among others.