“Just Say Those Words”

Ejiro Elizabeth Edward

Art of Creative Unity Award 2022 | Honorable Mention

Just Say Those Words.

This poem can begin with the sun not soaking up blood from our vessels, with soldiers not carrying arms, with bodies not laying still after the sound of a bullet to their head. This poem can begin with hands waving to the sky, singing hallelujah! Kumbaya!, with smiles glazing our faces.

Just say those words & we can all be happy again & dry bones will pop back together,  say those words & the guns will drop to the floor, the bones will pop back into place, the Hutus won’t club the Tutsi man into his funeral, just say those words & the Fulani’s won’t dagger their next victim into oblivion, the Igbos will not wake up to flee cause the gate of the city is burning.

Just say those words & the sound of Rachel will not be heard weeping in the city for her dead child, just say those words & Elisha will raise boy soldiers from the dead, Libya won’t bury her young, Somalia won’t turn into the mouth of a shark,say those words and Liberia mothers won’t offer their urine has water to their children, they won’t trek the Israelite journey looking for where the shower of bullet will emancipate their souls.

Just say those words & Hitler will not pass through the gates of a woman’s body birthing out war, just say those words & the Jews would not become the prey, just say those words and the assassin did not kill Ferdinand, arms & the man was never written, just say those words and Ukraine border never existed, just say those words and the sun will not become red with rage.

Ejiro Elizabeth Edward is a female artist from Nigeria. She has been published on Hoax, Consequence Forum, Native skin, Poetry column, Lolwe, 20:35 magazine, Feral amongst many others . She is a reader for the house of Chestnut review and the covener of Benin art and book festival . She looks forward to been an MFA student.