STILLBIRTH by Nweke Benard Okechukwu

 Stillbirth

woman, your fate lurks at the theatre

           today with weapons & a bowl to deep

you in the pool of blood. how do you bury

           placenta after nine months of armageddon;

of carrying a dead thing around like a hawker

          in the drizzling rain?  allergic to grief,

but i must carry notes of a harp to sing you

         into healing. the shock still hangs air

between your tongue, but you must take vigour

         like gin, and rebuke the stillborn remodifying

your womb. to bury without metamorphosing into dust.

Nweke Benard Okechukwu is a Nigerian poet. He's a cosmetician, and an undergraduate in Mass Communication at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka in Anambra State. His works have appeared/are forthcoming in Mudroom, West Trade Review, Icefloe, Isele, Poetry Foundation, New Yorker, Authors Publish, & elsewhere. He can be reached on Twitter & Instagram at @romeobenokechukwu.