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this too is poetry
the alarm buzz/ you don’t feel like waking/ you snooze it/ it buzzes again after ten minutes/ you get up/distraught/ forget to pray/ light a cigar instead/ try to pour yourself a scotch/ but you spill the ashtray/ ‘fuck’/ you say/ drink a shot of scotch anyway/ it fires your throat/ hot tears snake down on one cheek/ you refuse to wipe it/ you let the cigar hang on your lips/ you walk to the reading table/ sit a while/ boot your scraggy laptop/ the screen is broken/ it needs changing/ but you’re just a doomed writer/ you can’t afford it/ you ask if you’re sure what you’re doing/ about being a writer/ a poor writer/ you can’t find an answer/ so you try to write/ to convince yourself/ but the words won’t come/ you now decide to settle down for this poem/ a melancholic verse of depression/ of frustration/it doesn’t taste like your thing/ but you write it anyway/ ‘this too is poetry’/ you say/
Rapper, Essayist, Poet & Playwright, Ifesinachi Johnpaul Nwadike holds a BA & MA in Literature from Imo State University & University of Ibadan respectively. A 2018 Ebedi International Writers Residency alumni, his works have been published by Sun Literary Review, ANA Review, Ake Review & elsewhere. He lives in Lagos & relaxes by listening to 2Baba.