A house once stood here
—where this single wall stands.
A man and woman once kissed on many a night
and after a while, this house grew
filled with children laughing and fighting
playing and scattering the rooms, growing while glowing.
Friends once visited and laughter was the music here.
Yes, music once played above a fireplace here.
Adults danced slowly to happiness and melancholy
seasons changing the tunes as hope accompanied sighs.
Over here, a family drank from hope’s calabash at dawn
and used the blanket of night to forget all sorrow.
This house was us, and we were this house
Within whose warm walls were adorned portraits of joy.
Nightingales, rock firefinches and sparrows once sang on the trees here
where now vultures wait, nodding, while crows caw…
In this land, guns were used when voices should have been employed
This house was destroyed and the soul of this land was cut short.
A house once stood here
—where this single wall stands.
S. Su’eddie Vershima Agema
S. Su’eddie Vershima Agema is a husband and father, multiple-award-winning writer, cultural activist, and development consultant. He is the author of three poetry collections, including Memory and the Call of Waters (Shortlist, NLNG The Nigeria Prize for Literature 2022); Home Equals Holes: Tale of an Exile (Winner, Association of Nigerian Authors Prize for Poetry 2014; Nominee, Soyinka Prize for African Literature 2018); Bring our casket home: Tales one shouldn’t tell (Nominee, ANA Prize for Poetry 2013); a short story collection, The Bottom of another Tale (Shortlist, Association of Nigerian Authors’ Prize for Prose 2014 and Abubakar Gimba Prize for Short Stories 2015) and a children’s book, Once Upon a Village Tale (Shortlist, ANA Prize for Children’s Literature 2018).
Su’eddie was listed among Nigerian Writers Award’s 100 Most Influential Nigerian Writers Under 40 (2017 & 2018) and EGC’s Top 50 Contemporary Poets Who Rocked Nigeria (2012-2017). He was previously the Black History Month/Project Curator and co-founder/president, African Writers, at the University of Sussex, where he earned an MA with distinction in International Education and Development as a Chevening Scholar. He was also a Chairman of the Association of Nigerian Authors (Benue State Chapter) and Council Member of the Association of Nigerian Authors National Teen Authorship Scheme.
Su’eddie blogs at http://sueddie.wordpress.com and http://sevhagereviews. wordpress.com @sueddieagema on Twitter. He lives in a couple of places internationally with his wife, daughter, and members of their clan.
Photo by Nikola Knezevic on Unsplash