Like Sudan

(For Ebise Emiru, and those she shares that name with too)

Its only when a

Bullet has been sent to collect you that you realize

How quickly it

Can all change

Humps can

Overnight transform into road blocks

Fireworks can

Be usurped by machine gun music

You are so naïve you forget that a band of men can be sent from the

barracks to suppress your smile

it is only when you see a

child that received brain stem bullet for their birthday that you

realize how quickly it

can all change

hardware stores become

armouries and slashers prefer oxygenated blood to dew

you bury using nothing but

wild flowers

you forget that churches can change; blood is

spilled at the altar the way you remember wine was previously poured

it doesn’t take much for dogs to become healthier than

their masters

before the same legs that were looking for a

WIFI connection are looking for the border

before home is nothing but a

jar of soil in a strange country

and when you laughed about

Sudan

I laughed too. I laughed at how you don’t

Know that peace is like an itchy toddler; never staying at one place for long.