The sky is envious of footprints grazing the earth in silence,
Another name for lone walks is silence.
I am no different than a snail at the sight of foreignness,
I crawl into my body in silence
In my garden there is no difference between weed and produce,
Bell peppers wither to death in silence.
I am like a tree planted in the middle of the river – Isolated,
Current speaks about estuaries in silence.
Petrichor leaves no one the language to read the rainbows,
Translations of colour happen in silence.
Sundays are for white, bare feet kissing holy ground,
Sin is always confessed in silence.
I bury seeds only to resurrect them into devouring – Sometimes,
I build only to tear down in silence.
I cling to myself like a seedless grapefruit, no space for pollination,
A Rose nurses her thorns in silence
Roseline Mgbodichinma is a Nigerian poet, writer, and blogger. In 2018, she won the audience’s favourite award powered by Union Bank and Okadabooks for her short story, Silence that spoke. Her poem, The Giant, was published in the Poets in Nigeria (PIN) 2019 Anthology, and we were superheroes (another poem) was selected by Theresa Lola, the young people’s laureate for London to be featured in the “Say your peace campaign.”
