I lifted my best foe
who had recently laid my sacrosanct sister
from the dirty bathtub
His shock of hair around it
a ring of scar tissue
He had suffered from a mysterious ailment
I groped at his wide-open misery eyes
devoid of tangible light
his corneas a storm of red
I brought out a tangerine from my pocket
and peeled it
Swallowed it whole
the dust of my dolphin fingers
Here was a man
who had waited for a slice of the sun
to fall through his roof
Instead his family deserted him
I sat on a high empath’s neck
and watched her burp
a celestial radio
I could not find a steady frequency
So I tuned my car radio instead
and felt the tangerine heat
in my belly
on the road to eight years
Arinze Ubawuchi is a poet, short story writer and introvert to the core. He lives in Abuja, Nigeria.