(Title): * - Uchenna Uduma

above clay-dark huts,
by the withered bases of millet stalks,
a family of *s hangs lowly in the black sky—
dim,

substituting
what should be an oil lamp,
imitating
what should glow through
a mosquito net

shapes drift where walls should be,
mud-dark silhouettes;

bearing weapons no child should bear—
and yet they do,
because nothing here is allowed
to stay human

the nightjar croaks once
as mother’s pot cools on the hearth:
tuwo for the girls to eat,
freshly picked okra for the men to cut,
its rim still warm with the sensation
of dinner

a moment meant to be ordinary,
a moment the world should protect—
but beyond the huts,
a truck coughs awake,
swallowing silence
mouthful by mouthful

so.
the girls will be taken.
none will be spared.

and whether their breaths are stolen
or their bodies and uteri left whole,
or their soft hands made callused
by the grip of a rifle’s body—

the account will be the same:
the *s will not care,
the *s will not bother

yet they will fool;
oh, they will pretend,

shining from uniforms and checkpoints
promises di brittle dị ka kilishi! (promises as brittle as kilishi!)

for the *s are africa’s greatest pretenders,
ma, ụmụ mmadụ remember: (but us humans remember)

these *s
hang as lowly
as the very truck

holding death itself—
death of life,
death of mind,
death of the names
girls once carried

it is these *s
that gave onwu biko
its heaviness

O!
onwu biko!
ka ụmụ agbọghọ anyị zuru ike. (let our daughters rest.)

Note: this poem is inspired by and dedicated to the victims of the 2014 Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping in Nigeria and the surrounding regions by terrorist groups. Additionally, the Igbo birth name referenced, “onwu biko”, is traditionally given to children from families who have experienced significant death. It literally translates to “death, please”. However, it is not requesting the presence of death, but rather begging for the departure of death from the family.