-At the Internally Displaced Persons Camp, Kuje, April, 2015.

I know where daffodils trade their yellows for crimsons;

I know where they are, too weary and weathered with war;

Yes, I know where their cornet-cast crowns are full of furrows:

The soles of a refugee’s feet—bloodied, broken into lines of latitude and longitude of longing;

Longing for home on whose pristine paths sprout earth’s most prickly plants:

Bombs, blades and crying kalashnikovs.

 

—
Frank Eze lives in, and writes from, Ibadan, Nigeria. He recently won the Eriata Oribhabor Poetry Prize. His works have been published in online journals—Praxis, WritiVision, COAL and many others. Frank is working on his debut poetry collection, AMARANTHINE.