Queendom: Herstory
When she woke up that morning, the biggest smile she’d ever had that week fell across her heart. Everything about the morning seemed so fresh and dazzling—best of all it was drizzling. She sat up and looked out through her window. Dark clouds, blue sky, sun hiding behind the clouds. She smiled another big smile. You see, that day, she wasn’t going to let all the hurt she’d been feeling get to her anymore. So she got down on her knees, by her bedside and said a little unusual prayer. He said they couldn’t be together anymore. It had hurt and still did hurt but like I’d said earlier too, You see, that day, she wasn’t going to let all the hurt she’d been feeling get to her anymore. She was going to build back her Queendom, once again. Mirabelle Morah
“Tomorrow I Will Fight Again”
We had a little gist with our parents yesterday and they reminded me of my very mischievous childhood days. One interesting memory was when I was in primary 2, I came back home with scratch marks on my face. I’d gone to fight my elder brother’s class mates in primary 5 When mum asked me me what happened I told her, I was beaten but ‘I Will Fight Again Tomorrow’ – And I did. That’s life for you: You’re beaten only if You remain on the ground. You’re Beaten if You do nothing about yesterday’s adversity. You’re Beaten if You accept defeat. I took up The #30 days challenge last month But I wasn’t able to finish because I didn’t feel like writing on the last day of The Challenge. … But I’ve got to get back to Unfinished Business. You may have dropped out of school – fight again…
And While We Slept …
I was there when they came to take him away. The soldiers in uniform. My mother screamed and wailed as her friend Ugboaku tried to restrain her. The aged men in our kindred all gathered in our compound as they heaved their shoulders up and down, shook their heads, and kept looking up at the sky as though seeking answers from their chi. My father remained unperturbed. His countenance remained blank and no one could tell what he had on his mind. Just like him, I was indifferent. I felt my mother was exaggerating the seriousness of the situation. My father was going to be a soldier fighting for our new Jerusalem. I wondered why that should call for mourning. The soldiers who stood by the truck waiting for my father to sit in the back before they would zoom off raising dust that could blind anyone looked smart. Their…
The Watcher III
“It is true!” Amazarak’s whisper penetrated through the thick blackness within the temple. “She is truly gifted.” he continued. The night sky glowed with silver that fell into the temple through the windows that were close to the roof. It was normal for distressed humans to be found in the temple after dark, but Azazel and Amazarak were not humans. Their eyes glowed within the darkness. “Hmm! Does he know it yet?” “He suspects.” “Then we must move up plans.” Ishtar had come to the fields again, basket in her hand. The sun was quiet above her. It was different today. Somebody else was there before her. She strained her neck until she was looking up, into his face. The intensity in his eyes told her a story that she knew she should not want to listen to; but she did want to. She remembered him, although he looked different,…
The Watcher II
“Who is that?” Samyaza asked. His skin glazed under the sun as he looked far into the fields. He and Amazarak, the Sorcerer were taking their traditional walk in the afternoons. Ishtar was picking grains far in the fields. Her gown gracefully danced to an agile rhythm that played in Samyaza’s mind. Her hair gleamed in the sun light. ‘“Who?” Amazarak had a sharp voice so that even though he talked fast, it was not difficult to hear him. Samyaza was quiet. “Oh!? Ishtar? Her name is Ishtar. No one knows anything about her except that she is an orphan who works the fields for money” Amazarak spread his lips into suggestive laughs. “She is quite beautiful, isn’t she?” “Eerie, isn’t it?” Amazarak quickly turned to look at Samyaza. He was squinting. It was shocking to hear that Samyaza was frightened, even worse to know that the cause of his…
The Watcher I
Long, time ago, long before cities were built within walls, in the days of Enoch, the beholder of heavens, when men were closer to the truth and believed in only one god, a band of angels rebelled against the laws of the universe and decided to find freedom. They searched through the seven universes and found freedom on earth. They would soon discover that, on earth, freedom is not free. He stood still; the feeling was even better than he had anticipated. He closed his eyes as he inhaled the cold night air. The star-studded sky spread into the horizon that held dark waters. When he opened his eyes, the moon was in the water, it moved with the ripples. His bare feet were buried in the white sands. He moved them. Is this what it feels like to be human? He asked himself as the tides sent refreshing breeze tumbling against…
Between He and That Thing Called Love
“… Maybe it really isn’t my time, yes I do fall in lust with all the wrong people, so that really doesn’t make it love. I’ve tried to push myself on this person, I’ve said how I feel, I’ve sang love songs and written love poems even to her.” He gave a dry laugh and gulped down some more of the coke from the bottle in his hands. “My head hurts badly now, maybe I need panadol. It pains to know that my love loves someone else. I seriously have a bad headache now o! I could just be her side guy sef. I don’t see any reason to save money to travel out anymore. Aunty doctor, do you see this thing? You get the point ba?” I nodded and urged him to carry on. Trying to give him the best of my rapt attention but actually my mind had…
Ranyinudo
“Ranyinudo!” She moved skillfully inbetween tables of rotting tomatoes half-hidden beneath fresh ones. Fat healthy flies buzzed and danced without fear around them while the traders paid little or no attention to the flies, only calling out to passers-by to buy their tomatoes. “Ranyinudo!” The voice seemed persistent. She hastened her steps and moved briskly, brushing hard against the crowd as she tried to hide and mix with the different shades, colours and sizes of people. Whoever it was she didn’t want to meet, she wanted to be left alone. Mannequins showcasing different cotten and wool sweaters lined almost every shop she walked past. Her old sweater was threadbare now and the harmattan was just becoming intense, she was calculating how much she had in her savings bottle back at home when someone grabbed her left hand, jolting her out of her thoughts. She looked down and Sunia smiled at…
Ever
My bag is packed, she says in her mind, but I can hear her loud and clear. The most beautiful creature I’ve ever laid my turquoise eyes on since I was a cub. ‘I love you and I don’t want you to leave, but you just have to.’ I say to her in my mind. She packs her hair into a bun and ties it round with a black scarf—I love black. I love her —but she can’t hear me. I wish she could feel the rhythm of my heartbeats, the way I can feel hers right now. Boom.. Boom boom.. Boom.. Boom Boom… It goes and I love the sound of it. Each time we cuddle during the cold rainy nights, her heart beats just once every five minutes. She used to feel safe with me. I was once her angel’s wings. “I’m ready to leave now.” She finally…
Unread
It had always stared at him in the face. He respected her and she respected him, or so he thought. With that, he couldn’t just open it up. But you know something? Today was different. Today made it three years since it had been laying on his table, untouched. His curiosity was very much alive today. He had suppressed every monstrous journalistic curiosity in him for three good years. If she didn’t want him to open it she would’ve come back and taken it away ever since. She left it there. She left it there and never came back for it. Or. For him. *** He stood by the pavement of a bridge and looked across. “Wavy, curly, seesaw, up and down…” He muttered to himself as he watched the river tides. If only he had known all that she had been going through. If only he hadn’t been too…
Cynthia
Cynthia was always nice to me. She had the prettiest smile and the prettiest hair, not that I knew many girls but Cynthia lived next door. “You, come out and play with me.” She’d call out on Wednesday evenings. “Hey, come on and eat with me.” She’d say to me in school. “Won’t you be in church today?” She’d ask me on Sunday mornings. Sometimes I thought she cared about me more than my family did and so I trusted her with my trust. My everything. And my life. It was carol night in church that day. Cynthia made me sing with the junior choir and I had only obliged because she was also in the choir. The air was cold outside and everyone was inside the church building. We stood by the baptism pool, looking into it from behind the fence. “Mama says once I turn 16 I can…
I Saw You
My mind was in its usual state, far away from my body. All I could think of was 12pm! 12pm and I hadn’t done my morphology assignment yet. I walked as fast as my feet could fly so I could catch up with my colleagues in the copying—sorry, resource room. I felt a gentle brush, or was it a pinch on my arm? I can’t recall. Then I looked back and saw a silhouette. You turned and smiled. My lips smiled but my brain screamed 12pm! Now, as I seat here, 2am, my mind in its rightful place. I am suddenly smiling. Smiling because I remember that I saw you. Written by Mirabelle Morah
Silhouette Eyes
So i kept on the sidewalk, the weight of the laptop bag that hung over my shoulder turned my walking into some kind of retarded dance step. I had been aggressively punching the keys of my Dell all day, so much that i had forgotten the basic role eating played in the cycle of life: My throat had become sore; a thick migraine excited my head and my stomach had gone numb- hunger was clearly haunting me. I decided that i was not in the mood to be squeezed into some retarded scrap of metal with tires with a set of three other random and sad people by these greedy, lazy Calabar taxi drivers, so i walked. I had not realized it was a Saturday until i saw how Atekong was lit up. Some fast-paced Nigerian song, with a very disturbing instrumental, in which the singer was clearly impressed by…