POEM: & IT WAS A NIGHT OF CRIMSON RED

By Mahbubat Kanyinsola Salahudeen

//...... & IT WAS A NIGHT OF CRIMSON RED//

"On the night of 20 October 2020, at about 6:50 pm members of the Nigerian Army opened fire on unarmed End SARS protesters at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos State, Nigeria".   _ Wikipedia

bullets, blood & death

they were only on a quest for freedom / a quest for a new beginning_ clouds of change gather to fill voids / voids we have longed lived with / the truth is in my country  

everything that left & did not return is lifeless like the tsunami of young people who nipped my budding tongue / who taught me to speak & say out loud _ "A luta Continua"

today makes a year they rolled through the space between highrises / sidewalks across the nation sing the anthem of youth / bow to the flag of valiant comrades fed up with 

excuses & void promises / on placards were pleas for a future / banners scream of a 

nation in flames / burning to ashes and seconds later / beneath the split milk of the 

moon there was an ambush / the bullets sneaked through the night like sequins /nested a home in the succulent blankets on their bodies / life quivered in their mouths then 

falls off their lips then breaks into shards / i don't know the feeling of reminisce of grief but I feel naked ever since they said "no casualties were recorded" / of other places / i 

do not know but here / every light is a flickery night & being bereaved to the sonority of bullets is no uncommon drama / where we come from / hope is like a silly child always

 

pinning for the impossible. 

"everything that left and did not return is lifeless"

                                                                  _ Ololade Akinlabi Ige's poem; Adieu

                                                                         

Mahbubat Kanyinsola Salahudeen is a confessional writer, poet and spoken words artist from South Western Nigeria who sees writing as a therapeutic outlet. She has works featured or forthcoming at Spillwords magazine, Brittle Paper, Ice Flow press, Ninshar Arts, Ice Lolly, Arts Lounge, SprinNG journal, Litround journal, Down in the Dirt, Aayo Magazine, Nanty Greens, Cathartic Review, Northern Otter Press, Konya Shamsrumi, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Terror House Press, Confetti, Beatnik Cowboy, Fterota Logia, Borrowed Solace and elsewhere. She is a winner of IHRAF Creators of Literary Justice Award 2021. She is on Twitter at @SMahbubat