After Ilya Kaminsky /After Muriel Rukeyser

I live in a small semidetached duplex 
                      and the war does not get to me.

The news is playing. 
                  And everyone is playing games 

of semantics. However you slice it, 
    there are children’s skulls split open like blossoms.

How else can I say this for the deranged to listen? 
    I live in the century of money. In the country of money.

The more money exchange hands,
    the more deaths. 

My throat aches with silent requiems. 
    And I eat sorrow like a camel in the desert. 
 
Which means every time. And there are still 
        many kids out there 

with only their tongues to chew on. 
   In a century of money, I live in a small house 

and the war is raging outside, 
                          raging everywhere.

About the Author:

Saddiq Dzukogi is a Nigerian poet based in the United States. He is the author of Your Crib, My Qibla, selected by Carolyn Forché as the winner of the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry. His new book is the epic poem, Bakandamiya: An Elegy (University of Nebraska Press, 2025). Saddiq’s writing has been supported by the Nebraska Arts Council, Mississippi Arts Commission, and PEN America. His poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine, Ploughshares, Georgia Review, Guernica, Kenyon Review, and Narrative Magazine. He is a fellow of Obsidian Foundation UK, as well as Cave Canem. 

*Feature image by Quaritsch Photography on Unsplash