With a Kiss
With a kiss he was betrayed,
beaten and slapped
as a sign

that he’s denied and rejected,
a man to be unaccepted
and mocked and scourged,

a man accompanied with blows
sickening him and making his brows
a broadcast to the people.

He was dragged to death
to give us a faith
in the truth of life

through changing seasons
and feelings making up persons
to never misguide but guide.

Arisen
With thorns, he was crowned
and painful piercings dawned
throes and tears

though the hours of woes
underpinned by foes
whose orchestrations failed.

Jesus is risen
and we have arisen
from slumbering days and nights

which we kept
in sorrow so felt
and sincerely lived

with Christ for whom we are
and with whom we are
for eternal days and nights with joy.

 

Inalegwu Omapada Alifa, also known as Innocent Inalegwu Alifa, is a young Nigerian writer writing from Ibadan. Some of his works have found home from “MockingHeart Review” to “Parousia Magazine,” “Yellow Chair Review” to “Lunaris review,” “Expound Magazine of Arts and Aesthetics” to “GFT Series,” “Manchester Review” to “GFT Presents: One in Four: A Philanthropic Literary and Art Press,” “poeticdiversity” to “Visceral Brooklyn,” “Saraba Magazine” to “Sentinel Literary Quarterly: The Magazine of World Literature,” “Eyedrum Periodically” to “Spectrum.”