Image by Mahua Sarkar from Pixabay
Error 404
You opened an app, a browser Chrome smelled of your search history and before you tweeted, the bird on the window mocked you
and you logged off…
You opened an app, Recent searches of rape videos, The after effects and possibly, sample of victims who finally had ropes around their necks
popped up
You couldn’t add together, How strong people like Maureen came to the internet to rescue their lives You’re a victim too, but unlike them, Your story is wobbled or how, How does someone who has ‘man’ ‘hood’
dangling between two legs rant around?
You read how people like Tukur maimed the spirit of self-annihilation The noises of Facebook walls didn’t help in any way, Whenever you look in the mirror, You see wreckage, you see a lifeless boy You stutter during conversations
and prefer sketching birds indoor
When you finally decided, what’s right, You opened an app, a browser The one that smelled of your search history, Chrome! You ignored all popping messages and directly typed some weird words, “Ten best ways to die” You clicked the enter button and the search engine hissed, “Error 404.”
Adegoke Adeola is a poet, essayist, spoken word activist and political analyst. He’s had some of his works published in local and international journals/magazines like Kalahari, Novelafrique, Literanation, Navigator Communication among others. He was a finalist at BB Mini Slam, runner-up at Onkowe Talk the Word poetry slam and winner of CWAN Pengician of the Year Award 2015.