What I mean when I mean nothing is happening

after 'the rules' by Leila Chatti

By Ewa Gerald Onyebuchi ​

​i mean / there are no songs / hiding in the lips of this poem / no story ejaculating a happy ending / because this poem has had enough of that / no name flowering in the broken palm of time / no subject meeting an object in a stream of complex sentence // there are no metaphors for grief here / say this poem doesn't have to be about paper boats/ saving every drowning memory/ say you're done being a fruit / for every mouth to devour / the juice of your kindness /say your pillow is tired of eating your tears / and hearing his name / a mantra on the tongues of other women / no folding your dreams / into the hands of men who say your voice / is a lost little dog / your heart no longer  a doormat / housing footprints of loneliness / no more web of / memories trapping you in yesterday / now your body is a house and you decide who comes in through the door/ who stays is not your headache / no more trying to  fix things to maintain a perfect room / no thread of your sanity must sag / tonight / no one is coming // nothing nibbles at your peace / and you're waiting for no... one / but you / just you / & the world falling asleep beside your window / smiling & enjoying the silence like a glass of red wine

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Ewa Gerald Onyebuchi is a Nigerian writer of Igbo descent. An alumnus of Osiri University 2021 Creative Writing Masterclass taught my professor Chigozie Obioma, he was a finalist for the Spring 2021, Starlight Award for poetry. His short story, wearing my skin, was shortlisted for the 2020 Ibua journal bold continental call.

His works have been published on or forthcoming from  the lumiere review, rigorous, rulerless mag,  better than starbucks fiction and poetry magazine, afritondo, brittlepaper, corporeal lit mag,  art lounge mag, african writer, nantygreens, Ibua journal, synchronized chaos, spring ng, the pine cone review and elsewhere.