Explosion

By Sekinat Oladeji

16-01-2024
7:45 pm

"...reports of an explosion in Ibadan. Residents are urged to remain calm as security agencies are investigating this to determine the source and cause of the incident."

17-01-2024
12:09 am

I'm in my room, texting and calling
I will keep texting and calling until I can no more
I wonder what happens when I will call and no one answers

My country is a mannerless child
Cosplaying with the face of an elder
A reckless hybrid with fangs and claws
She is an amateur 
With a gun
She crawls circles around me, knife in teeth
A smaller radius with each run
She circles around those I call home
Sticking out her tongue, 
Shaking her diapered bum at me
Daring me to think, for one moment
That it could never be them, never be me

I sense cold logic in his words
My friend 
Has shed his warm skin 
Something ice cold runs through his veins
I think he needs to see the sun 
For his blood to turn red again

Or does he think we are the 'masses'
We overdramatize and like to throw ourselves into a pool of hysteria
But I am alone in my room
And I have real thoughts of blood and shrapnel
And lost and unfound things in the lion's den

But we are the masses
Him and the people beneath the rubble
The ones the ambulance still hasn't gotten to
And me and all the people he loves
And all the people I love
We are the masses
We are also the bullseye.

Writer’s Biography
Sekinat Oladeji writes about the world as she sees it. She hopes to one day see the world that she imagines. Her favorite pastime is sleeping, reading, and pretending to be a starving artist. Sekinat's writing largely revolves around women and domestic abuse, with the world as a background. She is currently studying medicine at Obafemi Awolowo University.