to be displaced is
to live outside your

body—moulding itself
a sculpture, fracture, numbness
the acme of things insensate

      to be present yet borne
      in cyclone of insentience

      digging conduits, ghastly
      gullies groping marrows

displacement, canon of world
born to spit out your body

      to be alive yet borne
      in embers of death

      evanescing insignia binding
      brooding bloodcells

no home hovering your
body—anatomy of void
case study, morticians
melting in marvel

      body—chasing itself
      into every hole harbouring
      the autopsy of things unsettled.

Osieka Osinimu Alao is a writer, academic and activist from Nigeria. He holds an MA in Creative Writing from Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. His scholarly articles have appeared or forthcoming in Dutsinma Journal of English and Literature (DUJEL), Gadau Journal of Arts and Humanities, European Journal of Literature, Language and Linguistics Studies, and elsewhere. His poems have appeared or forthcoming in Kreative Diadem, Arts Lounge Magazine, Nanty Greens, Requiem Magazine, The Web Poetry Corner, and elsewhere. His short story was one of the 200 longlisted entries for the 2019 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Twitter & Instagram: @osiekaosinimu. Facebook: Osieka Osinimu Alao.