Plenty

The day Obiageli decided to die,
She called her mother and pretended
She was digging for more life
Inside the ones she had attempted
She listened to the plea from her mother
“Why can’t you be like other girls”?

On the day Obiageli decided to die
She woke up, a year older; twenty-eight crawled in
She poured herself a glass of orange juice
She made scrambled eggs
Drowned her pills in a glass of wine

On the day Obiageli decided to die
The sun was lazy, coming up the sky
The night had been strange,
She saw herself quietly trying to sew her heart back
Into her, but she failed to stitch it properly
She heard the voice of her brother
Telling her to hang on
And she tried
To cut her ocean of sadness in half
She did
But trying and doing
Are two different actions

On the day Obiageli decided to die
Her three-year-old goddaughter remembered her
Three thousand miles away

On that ordinary day in September
The year winter ate into summer too quickly

By Ijeoma Umebinyuo

Biography:

I am a writer and a recent author of my first collection of poems.
I was born and raised in Nigeria.