Session 1 By Michael Akuchie

​Session 1


why are you here?  
— i am many things.                                                              
save for an explanation.
do you believe in hell?  
— i quit believing in myself.
i am hell packaged in a teenage life.  
i burn brighter than the dreams i abandoned.  
you smoke?  
— la... la... la...  i burn a smoke to update my body
on how many wreckages it must become.  
i liberate my body so it                                                      
ascends to peace.  
do you ever stop to think about God?  
— inside a church, i find no place to stand.
my mind turned its back on worrying about rapture
& who starts the consuming fire.
what do you represent?  
a boy withdrawn from society.
a frozen lake where water once ran through.   
soulful song no one claps for.
what is your name?  
i have a body. scars. memories. soul.
i killed my name to be something.
why are you a room of darkness?  
because light is slavery.                                                      
ask sinners.
i do no wrong by hugging the cavern on light's body.
i am neighbor to light.                                                          
arms apart, colours different.  


​
Lagos based Michael Akuchie writes poetry with an exiled mind. His recent works are on Praxis Mag Online, African Writer Online, Ngiga Review and elsewhere.  He studies English at the University of Benin, Nigeria.