i know the origin of my tremor

to my neighbour who says he is not homophobic but. . .

i know why the tremor lies in my body
but if this body was on fire what would you save
i know where the swing lies in my hips
but if this body was bashed with stones
will you stop to pick a stone
what would you save
i know where to kiss love into
but if you find me behind the closet
tracing his lips what would you do
i know all these
but i don’t know how to love anymore
i don’t know which stays in the right nor the left
but i know how harmless two boys
trace the arches on their bodies
no better way to sing praises to god for his creation
than to admire one’s body with a tongue
again
if their bodies were on fire what would you save

By Ugochukwu Damian Okpara

Biography:

Ugochukwu Damian Okpara, Nigerian writer & Poet, is the 1st Runner Up in the Nigerian
Students Poetry Prize 2019. He was one of the 21 mentees in the second cohort of the SprinNG Fellowship and an alumnus of the Purple Hibiscus Trust Creative Writing Workshop held annually by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. His works have appeared/forthcoming in Africanwriter, Kreative Diadem, NSPP 2019 Anthology, Straight Forward Poetry, Barren Magazine, The Penn Review and elsewhere. He is currently interning as the Contributing Interviewer for Poetry at Africa in Dialogue.