Ernest O. Ògúnyẹmí
Ernest O. Ògúnyẹmí is a writer and editor from Nigeria. His works have recently appeared/ are forthcoming in AGNI, Joyland, No Tokens, Agbowó, Southern Humanities Review, the Minnesota Review, the McNeese Review, West Trade Review, among other places. He is a staff writer at Open Country Mag.
[I want to tell you]
I want to tell you the story
but I don’t have the mouth—
the boy was playing when Death
knocked, said hello in a voice
so sweet it tasted like candy,
I know Death is nothing like
candy now, watched the air
drain from my lungs, hanging
there, a curse, a ripe curse,
but the tools did not do the job,
you know how these things
happen, let’s follow Marley to Hope—
Death knocked & said he was here
to say hi to my mother, see how she was
faring, if the illness was not draining
her because she had plenty of time still
& I let him in, what did I know—
he dug his hand in her chest, pressed
stop & that was it— but Death won’t
take the boy, the boy will take Death.
Sheila-Na-Gig online 