What I Told Instead

I am watching a bird being pulled by the wind,
It reminds of how words flew out of mother’s mouth…
I am sure you want to know more of this.
But you know that all things are not just told.
So I will tell another thing instead.
Something in this way:
A boy understands grief and names it with the
Parts of the body. Head is a canned bean of loneliness.
Legs are wheels of strange and muffled laughter.
Hand and stomach are paintings of unnamed memories.
And somewhere, not in his chest, is his heart full of broken love.

By Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto

Biography:

He (@ChinuaEzenwa) is from Owerri-Nkworji in Nkwerre, Imo state, Nigeria and a lover of literature. He has won the Association Of Nigerian Author’s Literary Award for Mazariyya Ana Teen Poetry Prize, 2009; Speak to the Heart Inc. Poetry Competition, 2016; and recently, Castello di Duino poetry prize, 2018. He became a runner-up in Etisalat Prize for Literature, Flash fiction, 2014 with I Saved My Marriage. And some of his works have appeared in Lunaris Review, AFREADA, Kalahari Review, Praxismagazine and Raffish Magazine.