come with me to the beauty booths along 
KASUPDA Junction to gush over the bevy 
of girls flaunting beady waists & ankles
till you choke on the fumes of nail polish & hair oil 
or 
go across the bridge
just when the sun is riding on the river &
coating the world in a warm orange 

let’s savour the 
delicious chaos of Ahmadu Bello Way— the bawling bus 
conductors & the rowdy transport taxers & the army 
of bumptious beggars 

walk with me down the crowded aisles of 
the flea market at Kasuwan Barchi & join 
other pretentious fashionistas who collect 
heavily perfumed 
burdens newly discarded by the First World 
or 
turn right into the manicured Yakubu Gowon Way littered 
with banks & office buildings like
a sprinkle of diced carrots on a plate of white rice

affecting humaneness let’s mumble prayers for the 
legion of job seekers who daily 
congregate by the Post Office to wrestle over 
crumbs strewn on the notice boards only to 
return home more miserable than they’d come 
& 

having shrouded our erectile dysfunctions in 
fancy suits & macho bodies just like most of the 
other passersby let’s just ignore the 
loudspeaker-mounted car 
sitting at the edge of the road bawling of 
virile roots that can transform the 
flaccid stumps between our legs into iron clubs

About the Author:

Ekweremadu Uchenna writes from Kaduna, Nigeria. Apart from poetry, he also engages other forms of creativity including prose and photography. His work (poetry and short stories) has appeared in Transition Magazine, Jalada, Parousia, Grub Street Journal, Coe Review, The Write Mag, Afreada, Saraba Magazine and elsewhere. Also, his poems have made shortlist for a number of prizes including Saraba/PEN Nigeria Prize for Poetry, Erbacce Poetry Prize, and RL Poetry Award.

Feature image by Image by Loke_Artemis/Pixabay