Precious Okpechi

shadowed

the bark of trees
surrounds us
dark as the distance
between them.
there is the little
shuffling of feet
on dead leaves,
& palms smoothing
against the other.
I don’t know
who needs saving
more: the woods
crackling under fire
with consistent
single cries,
or the only boy
with a head missing
from his shadow.
it is true whatever
happens to us,
our shadows
suffer the same
fate. & mother says
deformed shadows
are from under-
worlds, they come
to walk their masters
home – this is some
thing I don’t know
either, how this boy leaves:
dragged from the head
into the night, or chopped
off by this shadow
eager to predict
a future for once.
this night is more
than the little
suns in the sky.

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Precious Okpechi studies biochemistry at the University of Nigeria Nsukka. His work has appeared in Brittle Paper, Praxis Magazine, Nthanda Review, Kissing Dynamite, 20.35 Africa: An Anthology of Poetry and is forthcoming in the Nigeria Poetry Anthology.