Jekwu Anyaegbuna’s most recent poem to appear here was Crystal Voice, published as part of Contributor Series 9: If Men Had Ears.
Caution
By Jekwu Anyaegbuna
We lock our family gates against the new rains,
to prevent the possibility of diluting our thirsts.
We have been warned to safeguard our throats,
to verify the lip of every breast before we suck it.
Never trust an angel with the white wings of deception.
Under them a black gun awaits the arrival of furtive fingers.
When the morning smiles with yellowed teeth, we don’t open our doors,
in case we’re being deceived by an old moon ambling home late.
Before we drive across the bridge, we ensure that another person has
already crossed because the fishes might have stolen the pillars overnight.
When a hen pursues us in the morning, we run because she may have
grown teeth overnight and wants to test her new dentition on us.
We password our office life with secret encryptions,
and our hands sit on the chairs before our buttocks do.
The nerves of precaution are very delicate with anaemic blood.
The beautiful face of an apple could destroy a generation of cautions.
So well done.