i want to sleep Nigeria away 
shut out the noises in my head
blur out the drama in my heart
but how do you shut out the portrait of
your brother killed while pleading not to be killed?
how do you erase the loud innocence of that night?
the night your country exchanged guns & firing
for the now stained flag & peaceful anthem
how do you sleep after watching your sister swallowed by her home?
how, then, do you forget not
to point your left finger towards home?
i want to sleep Nigeria away
because my ears hurt from stories of needless deaths by SARS Men
my heart quakes from breaking bit by bit
but I do not find solace in sleep
this nightmare scares me away
and i soon jolt awake still here in a country
my country that swallows its own, drowns its own
because they are crowned & drunk
in the liquor of power.
Rahma O. Jimoh
is a writer and nature photographer. She loves to write on humanity, identity and politics. She’s a lover of nature, photography and tourism. She has been published or forthcoming in Feral, Versification, Serotonin and other literary journals. She was a joint winner, PIN 10-day poetry challenge, 2019; Second runner up in the Poesy writers contest, 2018, and recently shortlisted as top ten in the Hysteria Writing Contest, 2020. She is Poetry Editor for The Quills and Contributor at Best of Africa. She hopes her works would leave an impact on hearts and footprints on the sand of time. She’s on Facebook @Rahma O. Jimoh, IG/Twitter: DynamicRahma.
Cover image credit: Tosin Taiwo
A very raw and beautiful piece.
She’s has just written well wonderfully. This poem presents the horrors we have here where home is only a house four-cornered with grieves. Where do we run to?