The New Verse News presents politically progressive poetry on current events and topical issues.
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without a government: without a place (segregation)
for black or white or color riot. A song as soft as the snow.
I gift you rain in the desert. A bow without an arrow,
so you don't hunt. I gift you a heart as big as Asia.
A smile as warm as Summer. A will as strong as Africa.
I gift you meditation as deep as the oceans of Europe.
For Val, I gift you the pain of childbirth. The giggling that comes afterward.
The innocence of a thousand childhoods. The riches of the earth.
I gift your friendship. The (im)perfect family. Cry. Laugh. Cry. Laugh.
I gift you the reasons to go on and on
and never quit to try again and again.
I gift you the rain and the bow; rainbow.
The songs of the ancient. The hope of the future.
I gift you miracle. Goodnews.
For Val, I gift you—you.
Joseph Hope writes from Nigeria, West Africa. He believes he's a metaphor for what can be, what is possible. His works are forthcoming or already published in Reckoning Press, Timber ghost press, Evening Street Press, Zoetic Press, The New Verse News, Praxis Magazine, Ubu, AfroPoetry, Gemini Spice Magazine, Spillwords, SprinNG, Writers Space Africa, anthologies, and more. He's a reader for reckoning press. He was a fellow in the 2021 SprinNG Writing Fellowship. He tweets @ItzJoe9 & IG: _hope_joseph
Gunmen have killed at least 30 people in northwest Nigeria in the latest round of violence in which hundreds have been killed so far this year and thousands more displaced. —The Washington Post, October 18, 2021. Photo: Some members of the Nigerian Armed Forces Sniper Unit. Stefan Heunis/AFP via Getty Images via The Conversation, October 18, 2021
What it takes to live here.
Numb. Wait for the news:
unknown gun men killed an
unknown number of people,
go to bed and hope there is
tomorrow, of course there is
always tomorrow
and aways bad news,
a man named Naira
fell from it high horse
and broke more than a neck.
The president said shoot
the protesters, No,
the Army chief did, No,
an unknown fraternity bigger
than the government gave the command,
we don't know who fired
but we know who died.
Pretend. Pretend you're happy
and unhurt, riddled with holes and alive.
Try to live on unpaid
salaries for months
and save enough to buy a house
from unpaid pensions.
Understand to plan your future
on nothing but prayer, a lot of it
that the church overflows and spill
into the street like chemical waste.
Understand ghost walking,
understand the rhythm of bullets,
understand the many ways you could
die gradually until blood looks like red paint,
until bodies piled like groundnut
pyramid appear
as a necessity.
It would take more than
the blood of children drooling from the altar
of terrorism to
inflate your already deflated emotion.
The superpower of being a Nigerian
is that you can make comic of death,
dance in anger, and swallow grief
like your daily vitamin supplement.
Joseph Hope is a student of Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto, Nigeria. He is currently studying applied chemistry. His works are forthcoming or already published in Reckoning Press, Evening Street Press, Zoetic Press, The New Verse News, Praxis Magazine, AfroPoetry, Gemini Spice Magazine, Spillwords, SprinNG, Writers Space Africa, Nthanda Magazine, 5th Chinua Achebe Anthology, Ariel Chart, Best "New" African Poets 2019 Anthology, and more. He's a reader for Reckoning Press. He was a fellow in the 2021 SprinNG Writing Fellowship. He tweets @ItzJoe9 & IG: _hope_joseph
peace will still remain the only cure to conflicts.
Joseph Hope is writing from Nigeria, a student of Usman Danfodio University. His works are either forthcoming or already published in Reckoning Press, Evening Street Press, Zoetic Press, The New Verse News, Praxis Magazine, Gemini Spice Magazine, Spillwords, SprinNG, Writers Space Africa, Nthanda Magazine, 5th Chinua Achebe Anthology, Ariel Chart, Best "New" African Poets 2019 Anthology, and many more. He's a young man running away from his name. How absurd! He tweets @ItzJoe9
The United States Country Report on Human Rights Practice in Nigeria, published on March 31, 2021, tepidly states that “On October 20, members of the security forces enforced curfew by firing shots into the air to disperse protesters, who had gathered at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos to protest abusive practices by the Nigerian Police Force’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). Accurate information on fatalities resulting from the shooting was not available at year’s end. Amnesty International reported 10 persons died during the event, but the government disputed Amnesty’s report, and no other organization was able to verify the claim.” The US government report is seriously at odds with the CNN report reproduced above.
A subsequent CNN report documents how the Nigerian government edited a key piece of video evidence. "The Lagos State government's security camera footage of the Lekki toll gate shooting did not capture everything."
We don't have evidence
but we have our truth.
We don't have evidence,
because it was ripped away from us
with guns aimed at our heads.
People were shot and taken away to unmarked graves.
We have their faces crested on our hearts,
the nameless uncounted for.
Protesters waving their flags were shot in their heads
in their guts
in their backs
in all the places that could kill a man.
The numbers of the dead increases by enough.
A bullet goes through a youth's
throat like hypens
silencing the anthem in his mouth.
Mustapha is down. John too.
How many brothers do I have to bury
to know how hard it is to dig a grave?
Peace and bullets ain't mixable,
Don't you agree?
Our blood is also red like the blood of Abel.
The dead are restless.
The dead were shamed:
Their bodies were washed off the cameras,
washed off the internet,
washed down the filthy drains like shit
by the unremorseful ruling monsters?
But the dead have many tongues: so listen
to me, you proprietor of death—
This is our Homeland!
It's our right to sing,
think, and talk.
We will not yield
even if you level us like fields,
and cut us away from our names and identity.
Turn us to organic manures
and we will still grow trees
whose adventurous roots will infiltrate your resorts (Aso Rock)
to strangle you
and your ignoble generals.
We are too stubborn
to be wiped off clean.
We'll continue to speak underneath the earth
until someone up there hears us.
Joseph Hope is writing from Nigeria, a student of Usman Danfodio University. His works are either forthcoming or already published in Reckoning Press, Evening Street Press, Praxis Magazine, Gemini Spice Magazine, Spillwords, SprinNG, Writers Space Africa, Nthanda Magazine, 5th Chinua Achebe Anthology, Ariel Chart, Best "New" African Poets 2019 Anthology, and many more. He's a young man running away from his name. How absurd!
