Pula

Marvellous Mmesomachi Igwe

1 Publication

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Falling light,
empty
of violence.

Falling silent,
feathered joy.

Today, the world
is gentle.

The palm reaches
for my face,
and it is not curled

into a fist. The boy
in the mirror
is another boy.

His eyes are foreign.
His eyes, a monody
of peace

once thought
forgotten.
And his mouth is not

embroidered
with blood.
I, wingless youth.

I, who had burned.
Who had made
a god out of my heat.

Had thought the flame
would live on,
would eat me

forever.

But look—
slowly, sweetly,

rain.

*Pula: Setswana for rain.

Marvellous Mmesomachi Igwe, Swan X, is a budding poet from Port Harcourt, Nigeria. He has been published in The Cloudscent Journal, Serotonin, Isele, The Dawn Review, Poetry Sango-Ota, Poetry ColumnNND amongst others. He is the winner of the 2024 Kukogho Iruesiri Samson Poetry Prize, co-winner of the 2024 Poetry ColumnNND Chapbook Award, the 2024 Folorunsho Editor’s Prize for Poetry and a finalist for both the 2024 Kofi Awoonor Poetry Prize and the 2024 Dawn (Review) Prize for Poetry. You can find him listening to his favorite singer Lana del Rey, or writing a poem. He tweets @mesomaccius.