so the morning came, and the earth received the splattering dart of thick, red squirts of blood, as the sun gave fledgling heat from the kinetic solitudes of space. so the midmorning came, and the pale sky received the smoke of burning flesh from censers of wood and stone as knives form dermographisms on the body of fated rams. this is how history is venerated: by writing it in the language of barbecue, and painting it in the colour of love, as travellers journey back home, through mapless hills and valleys, from lands that test their faith hard.
by Dr Pat Ashinze
Pat Ashinze, an Igbo-Yoruba hybrid, trained and graduated as a medical doctor from the College of Medicine, University of Ilorin. He writes within the axial stream of poetry, prose, essays, aphorisms, gizmos and whatnot. His works have been featured on several local and international platforms. He was a finalist for the 2021 Stephen A. Dibiase International poetry prize. He was a finalist for the World NTDS Storytelling (Literary category) competition in 2021. He was a recipient of the Best Writers Award at The ILUMSA’s 40th anniversary in 2018. He won the Inaugural Unilorin Students Union Poetry Prize in 2019.
Aayo Magazine 