Bye

What if as we are planning for hostilities/two women
are roving the streets/calling for their children/and here

they are/with us/their will and soul/their gunhands
stained with blood?/What if the bomb we kick in the teeth

pulls these women apart from their lovers/and these/
their children/press the trigger?/What if no one knows it

is them/the same women/because they have no self now/
and their bodies sleep/spattered/on the morgue table?/

What if their boys go home with gifts—meats and sweets/
a muffler/a jacket/some medicine for the arthritis?/What

if the boys do not watch the news/so they wait/late for
their mothers?/What if the two women scream/through

the gore at the foyer for them to open the door?/What if
the boys never hear?/What if they never hear/and though

the war is televised/they never find out/that the bombed
hospital holds their mothers?/What if they win the war/

and spend all of their lives looking for them/their mothers?/
What if their winning doesn’t bring relief?/What if nothing
changes?

Osahon Oka writes from Warri, Delta State, Nigeria. He holds a degree in English and Literary Studies. He enjoys experimenting with new forms and styles. His works appear in anthologies as well as literary spaces like Ghost Heart Lit, Lit Quarterly, Icefloe Press, LItbreak Magazine, Jalada Africa, Lucky Jefferson and elsewhere. He serves as the lead correspondent at Praxis Magazine and his debut, a collection of short stories, is forthcoming on Praxis books.