By Benson Eluma   O Virginia, possessed Of the instinct of a plant On the riverbed, this body Knows not the symmetry Of the oar passing, but shivers With the shock all the same…   Flower-dust in eyes Flower-dust in nose Body charmed in wind-waves   Bred and battered In a civilization of stone Mind no naturalist like Adam Husband [...]

by Benson Eluma Traffic in truth and troth, Truck in wares of scorn and porn— Hearts we wear out on walls As into holes our fundaments wail. All around the cubicles, scribes Set dicta and maxims and theorems; lovers Mark down daggers of ardency and loss. Occurs Eka, Queen of Contortions, 14½ times in drawing and in text, The mildest: [...]

by Benson Eluma   For Ify Omalicha Who now to carry on Your dance of beatitude, Lead the chorus In the return movement?   Your strings have suddenly come Undone centre stage. The actors Cannot avoid the strewn beads.   Giving a matinée, death Offered us free seats, Issued you a libretto You were not eager for.   You did [...]

by Benson Eluma  MANY A FINE poem is inspired by that complex of feelings called love. To make no bones about my subject, the love I speak of is simply the sexual kind. Not the mindless love throbbing in the heart of the soldier as he bayonets his way through a thicket of enemies, anthem mingling with battle cry on [...]

1. Sister Mustard died someplace Mount Ebola, I think, in Africa. They planted a mine on the headstone For a curious little boy to play with.   Kaboom! and his lost limbs won Weeklong notice on international news. Sister Mustard turned And smiled in her death…   2. The ants laboured hard in the sun On the trail of the [...]

by Benson Eluma Claire, now they make the mannequins with long legs They give them huge buttocks and big breasts But they leave their lips thin and their noses aquiline They dress them up in damask and head-ties They do not forget the fans that go with social events But they leave them without panties and without bras Claire, you [...]