GUYS ARE RED.

These pretty girls choose John

to them, he is the only guy in town.

Yes he is: the red guy, with the

red car and on red light

and because he is red, he is hot

i warned them pherhaps,

he could be pepper red

they wouldn’t listen

now John is gone with

kate and Helen

they said am the coolest guy

yet red is the colour of love.

I WILL LOVE WHEN YOU ARE OLD.

She thinks i love her

because she is beautiful

she thinks i missed her

because i lost her

O, i met a girl once who is pretty

i loved her once because she is beautiful

how i loved her, for the shape of her nose,

the touch of her skin, the smell of her breath

now she is gone leaving black memories behind.

I will love you when you are old

now that, beauty bewitch you

i will love you when your body turns wrinkle

and grey in the face

when your heart is filled with the intent

when you old and full of love

i will not love you in your youth.

UNCOOKED POEMS.

I hope my dream be

wished,

yet dreams aren’t clean – like

uncooked meals

i only have pomegranates

some traveller said i carry pineapples

would you fetch me some, i ask

they are unripe he said.

O, dreams are hard.

Ogana D. Okpah is an undergraduate of Plant Science and Biotechnology studying with Nasarawa State University Nigeria. He has been featured in The New Black Magazine, Africanwriter, The Rising Phoenix Review and a few others. He is awaiting publications elsewhere.