I'm by all means convinced the sea enrolled in our first grade,

in lieu of a teenage vagabond.

                                                    Saltless phonemes from sleek cable

lungs & the listening device

seared to her breast. A suffering

she knew to skin, like negro

comes in such hurtful flavor.

I go about her with lectured silence,

improving on speech and native slangs.

                                                        Once, we got to rough vernaculars and

the spotlight catches her wound.

It’s bright surface, exuding what

proves unbearable: the yellow unfortunatelys,

                                                         the white hadIknowns & vowel infection,

as we threw our voices across the class bench.

I'm graceless with that fricative, hardened on soft palate,

                                                         stamping my feet in a bid to concoct any

gourd-like tone, to prove our forefathers held

oil to anoint these verbs pacing the atmosphere.

Semaphore, blooming brightly from her throat

If she attempts a smattering of lips,

it’s ultra-violence everywhere.

Which she does anyway, crafty with

the trauma— schooling me on the benefits.

Before now, I quarreled with sounds,

yank off its coherence from my teeth.

I used to weep in a narrative no one reads,

could keep a dirge going for months,

& still come full-blown with grief;

                                                          ripe with tragedy enough

to last a genre.                 

                                                          Only the sea alludes

to this drowning.

                        What am I, if not this black kid: a pseudonym nearly extinct.

what colors my life if not this wound.

yellow + white— becoming [ ].

Nnadi Samuel (he/him/his) holds a B.A in English & literature from the University of Benin. His works have been previously published/forthcoming in Suburban Review, Seventh Wave Magazine, NativeSkin lit Magazine, North Dakota Quarterly, Quarterly West, FIYAH, Fantasy Magazine, Uncanny Magazine, The Deadlands, Common Wealth Writers, Jaggery, Foglifter, The Capilano Review, Lolwe, & elsewhere. Winner of the Canadian Open Drawer contest 2020, & the International Human Right Arts Festival Award(IHRAF) New York 2021. He is the author of Reopening of Wounds & Subject Lessons (forthcoming). He tweets @Samuelsamba10.