EVEN DEATH HAS REGRETS
Stuck in the throat of the wind
is a song, a dirge for Golgotha;
where Mary’s eyes, like this poem
became drip lines; Peter wished
he did a cardiac arrest for the crow
that just died in the beak of a cock;
Judas was haunted by the ghost
of his murdered conscience- it
whistled non-stop in his pocket,
&sang a naked song (stripped of
its beats) like this one: “you too
Judas will be killed with a plate
of poisoned kisses; nails &hammers
had no respect for a carpenter’s son.
They sent Him off soaked with blood
& spittle while farewell songs brewed
from the shattering sounds of breaking
hearts: Mary’s, Martha’s &Lazarus’
sandwhiched between.
As Jesus trekked down the streets
of the afterlife, Death found him,
hugged &hosted a blood stained guest
who mocks her every Easter with a
piercing grin and one thorny question:
“Death where is thy sting?”

Ogwiji Ehi-kowochio Blessing is a creative writer and a final year student of Agriculture at the university of Ibadan, Oyo State Nigeria, where she writes for local press organizations. She is the winner of the 2017 Albert Jungers Poetry Prize, among other writing awards. Ogwiji believes that a person who wields the pen is of all men the luckiest; for life, more often than not, puts a man in a canoe but gives him no paddle.