I bought a red mug from the market.
The trader said
if it cracked before sunset,
I could bring it back.
So I carried it home,
set it beside the sink,
and spent the afternoon
dropping spoons into the red mug,
tapping the rim with a fork,
holding it beneath the tap,
waiting for a fault.
At dusk,
the red mug was still there.
The receipt was still there.
The road to the market
was still there.
I tore the receipt in half.
Years later,
the red mug sits in the cupboard.
The handle broken.
The glaze left.
A chip fell from the lip,
showing the grey dirt underneath.
Each morning,
I reach past six newer mugs
to find the old red.
About the author:
Majekodunmi Oseriemen Ebhohon is a Nigerian poet, theorist-playwright, and journalist. His poetry has appeared across several literary platforms, including Eco Instigator Magazine, Penned in Rage, Fringe Poetry Magazine, LampLit Magazine, and the Journal of African Youth Literature (JAY Lit). He was runner-up for the Professor Festus Iyayi Poetry Prize and longlisted for the African Human Rights Poetry Competition, and has been a special guest reader at poetry events organised by Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) and The Young Environmentalists Network (TYEN), and by Poets in Nigeria (PIN) and 60 Seconds Poetry. His debut play, The Great Delusion, won the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Prize for Drama, was selected for the Lagos Book and Art Festival, and has been adopted for undergraduate studies at the University of Benin and Edo State University, Iyamho. Professor G. G. Darah described the play as “a major contribution to the literature of Diaspora civilisation,” while Dr. Vibert Issa White, Professor of History at the University of Central Florida, who wrote its foreword, called it “nothing short of an intellectual resurrection.” The Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, hosted a panel discussion and live reading of the play in 2026.
Photo by David Garry on Unsplash