03.24.2023 — Poetry (4/4)

Three poems

Poetry by Blessing O. Nwodo, Illustrations by Greta Riondato

Ticking Bomb

A poem by Blessing Nwodo called Ticking Time bomb

Mama, you think that tiptoeing around a ticking bomb will stop it from exploding/that your holy water and holy book will transfer some holiness to a tainted temple/that bending and twisting yourself into shapes will straighten out the cooked nature of your husband.

Mama, you think that I am a a fool for not choosing the doormat path/For choosing to stand rigid, unshaken where you compromise you/think that wrapping your arms dusted with talcum powder around me/will shield me from the harshness of this spinning ball called home.

Mama, I feel your pain clawing its way out of your chest/I feel your hands lined with the script of your experience/I know you want my own lines to be free of your ordeal/Well, sometimes I think you do.

An illustration by Greta Riondato of two people with dark brown skin embracing in a tangle of green and bright orange gemstone bedclothes — “Twisting yourself” by Greta Riondato (charcoal and digital media)

Does your pain bother you?

A poem called "Does your pain bother you?" by Blessing Nwodo. The lines are scattered in three to five word clumps across the page.

Then turn your pain into gold/melt it down in the hottest of furnaces/beat it with a hammer, shape your pain/place it on the anvil/liquified, red hot pain/pick up th eburning gold with your bare hands/it charred the skin off your bones as usual?/how else will you being smelting your pain? cool it down in ice cold water/wear it around your neck/flaunt your pain/sashay around iwth it/bare your pain/let it serve its purpose/release your pain/keep it in a jewelry box/hang it on a mannequin/admire your pain/have you earned every right to/harness your pain/strap a saddle on it/wrap the reins around your arm/spur on your pain/ride, as a thousand others give chase/weaponize your pain/melt it down into armour/shield your heart and thighs/use your pain/let it work for you/let it slave, sweat, shiver/embrace your pain

An illustration by Greta Riondato. An abstract, circular image. In the middle is a small circle of blue and white like a bright sky. Surrounding this is a wash of grey and pink with black digital line drawings that look like buildings. — “Soul Meltdown” by Greta Riondato, (pen brush and digital media)

Soul Meltdown

A poem by Blessing Nwodo.

Let the world implode/rend it on days when the evil writhing inside man breaks free, scarring the /skies/shred into it when oxygen is replaced with burning/mists of grief, pain, hatred and truculence/let the world collapse/inside itself/let it be sucked into its very own core/wrung/till the remaining lump is formless, lifeless/Mortals turned inside out/Lines drawn in the nexus of roads/Paths becoming spines of tomes/Monstrositites on either side of streets/collapsing in shame/Heaving at the nerve of their inhabitants till their/tops touch compressed and melded, choking the life from space/the final chapter, like a book closing.

(sweeping and cutting through this poem is a smooth zigzag shape in which these words are written: "But in a spiral the end is another kind of beginning")

Poetry (3/4)

mistake

Poetry by Millefiore Clarkes, Illustrations by Greta Riondato

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