The salmon
in Imo River reek of mangrove,
December Ụ́gụ̀rụ̀, April dust,
Uziza leaves, and cocoyam.
Fishermen cast their nets
like lots, pulling out a gang
of land crabs. The river trickles,
leaving lacuna beneath.
My grandmother spreads
a basket full of defeated delta
smelt on the sun’s face
to pour breath into them.
A deacon in my church says it is
the sign of end time: When you see strange
things happening. A woman goes fetching fire
wood: sees exit holes with woodworms’
rusty-brown eyes staring back.
A mourning dove dashes
against the asphalt adjacent
to my car. I pick it up, tending
its wounds, its wings wrapped
like a parcel.
An Imo State-born, Victor Ihechiluru Unachukwu is a poet. His poems have been published in Adelaide Magazine, DLit Review, and Spillword Press and are forthcoming in Eunoia Review, Plentitude Journal, Promised Magazine, and the Best African Poets Anthology. He is also a recipient of the Key West Literary Seminar Fellowship (2025/2026). He was a finalist in the Poetry category of the 9th Annual Adelaide Literary Magazine Award Contest in 2025. He received the Wagner-Adler Summer Thesis Development Award from the English Department at the University of Kentucky.
Social media handle: Vzachnation@93
Photo by Adedoyin ADEROMOLA