The Funeral of Grief

i want to disown my body. reshuffle my teeth & name myself not a man that neighbours the hellfire(s). or that lives under the canopy of the silent grief. stranger, i don't want to hear anything home, again. this is not an irony. now,  a home is a hyperbole used for pain. i went on searching for. for a place where plants are green. for a place where the anatomy of pain’s never seen. for a place where none ever holds a gun. for a place, of fear, none ever, runs. for a place i could call my home. but, now, i am tired. of listening to my men singing in pain. sisters fetching dirty water &....raped. here, i want to burn, rebirth this home, again. these walls, that always break. these walls, that always fall. on our boys. on our girls. on any head they see. you see, we built them. with our fingers. with our eyes. and, it's time. we can scrape their paints. burry their sands. off memories. it's time. the line between our accents. between the colours of our bodies. between our hearts. is buried. grief does not know who is black. who is blue. or which is brown. it's a disaster. it eats all. it's time we thought. we buried their cruelty. off memories. it's time.

Salim Yakubu Akko is a World Voices Magazine’s Nigerian correspondent, Guest Contributor at Applied Worldwide, a poet and short story writer from the great city of Gombe state. He has been published/forthcoming in reputable newspapers, national and international journals and literary magazines, including the Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Trouvaille Review, ILA Magazine, Ice Lolly Review, Brittle Paper, Amulet Poetry Magazine, Arts Lounge, Imspired Magazine, Fevers of the Mind Magazine, African Fingers, Nnoko Stories,  World Voices Magazine, Spill Words Press, Upwrite Magazine, Applied Worldwide, Lumiere Review, The Pine Cone Review, The Piker Press, Afreecan Read, Teen Lit Journal, My Woven Poetry, OneBlackBoyLikeThat Review, Giallo Literary Magazine, Scratch Poetry Magazine, Literary Yard, Parrot Box, Calabar Poetry Magazine, Daily Trust Newspaper, The Nation News Nigeria, Blueprint Newspaper, The Guardian Newspaper, Independent Nigeria, Nigerian Tribune Newspaper, Opinion Nigeria, My Nigeria, African Fingers, The Campus Watch, Today Post Nigeria, People’s Daily Newspaper and elsewhere. He has been published in national and international literary anthologies like Love Nniwanti, Flow of Love published by Dr. Durga Patva, and the 2020 Lekki Massacre and so forth. He has also been shortlisted for the 2021 Bill Ward Prize for Emerging Writers; 2021 GSSS Gombe delegate for the annual Hadiza Ibrahim Aliyu Secondary Schools Festival (2021 HIASFEST); participated in the 2020 Jewel Writing Workshop and the 2021 Jewel Peace Project.  Akko is a member of Gombe Jewel Writers’ Association, Creative Club Gombe state University and Hilltop Creative Arts Foundation.