Tap me on this back, mother moon

& say we are closer 
home now, my love, that we're joy naming autumn petals 
Blooms 
       in search of grace 
                 
                         undeniable 
underneath 
                        these 

waters. 

Fires wrecking bones out of oiled machine

 gunslingers. What do we wet this birdsong curling through us now: Breathing 
breakthroughs, maybe? The trains are coming here to take us home. Say to my house of silent bones, dreams still come to pass. Like a man riding on seven horses, planting flowers around his daughter's neck. 

                  The wedding is near. Don't 

mention. 

Hope is a giant bird. Forget 

ruins, hold me tight. A little closer, a little closer to the edge, & soon, we will reach the road to the country. Watch how our shames fly into watering holes– become a city of moonflowers, watch me say grace, say love again, Oh “Hallelujah '' to thunder, blood & ashes, to us in this room, amen. Say falling bridges to the naming of our last super: Chimney houses, Sweet lord, help me. I grow me a lightning today out of my wounds in cardiovascular graves, one for you, the other for prophet Elijah, like GO.T.V’s nectarines fogging on tyranny walls. Wild dogs, bleeding disorders jarring at Monday god. 

                                                        Look!                                                           

                         the sea is here 
now. 

But don't be afraid. 

I am here now. Hold me steady. & let's go home, 
Mama. 

Onyishi Chukwuebuka Freedom is a Nigerian. A graduate of the Department of English and Literary Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He served as the Publicity Secretary of Muse 51, a journal of creative and critical writing established by Prof. Chinua Achebe in 1963. A His work has been published in Muse and elsewhere.