Your mother is full of many breasts—

For she served you colours at every breakfast—

Like every new sun brought its own flames.

Love revolved around your face

The night she picked up her body running in wide circles

& mirrored through errors her body hates like

What pumps blood becomes a missing rib

That holds the origin of sin.

Today you walked through the holes

in your father’s palm,

& wondered if it’s whole enough to bore you

But home is just another example of a lover.

…

N. N. Emmanuels is from Nigeria. He writes stories and poems. His works are published in The Muse Journal and forthcoming in Tuck Magazine, Kalahari Review and others. Right now he is an undergraduate of University of Nigeria, Nsukka.