OSIEKA OSINIMU ALAO
autopsy of things unsettled
to be displaced is
to live outside your
body—moulding itself
a sculpture, fracture, numbness
the acme of things insensate
to be present yet borne
in cyclone of insentience
digging conduits, ghastly
gullies groping marrows
displacement, canon of world
born to spit out your body
to be alive yet borne
in embers of death
evanescing insignia binding
brooding bloodcells
no home hovering your
body—anatomy of void
case study, morticians
melting in marvel
body—chasing itself
into every hole harbouring
the autopsy of things unsettled.
Osieka Osinimu Alao is a writer, academic and activist from Nigeria. He holds an MA in Creative Writing from Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. His scholarly articles have appeared or forthcoming in Dutsinma Journal of English and Literature (DUJEL), Gadau Journal of Arts and Humanities, European Journal of Literature, Language and Linguistics Studies, and elsewhere. His poems have appeared or forthcoming in Kreative Diadem, Arts Lounge Magazine, Nanty Greens, Requiem Magazine, The Web Poetry Corner, and elsewhere. His short story was one of the 200 longlisted entries for the 2019 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Twitter & Instagram: @osiekaosinimu. Facebook: Osieka Osinimu Alao.