Ellipses
for Chukwuemeka
When I was four, my brother made me a paper boat. He had torn the sheets from his drawing book. Never had a sheet left that book. He painted the paper boat my favourite colour—blue. He said the sea and the sky would always lead me home. Two weeks later, he died from Neurofibromatosis. The week after was his birthday. My paper boat was at the bottom of the bathtub. I sat on the cold floor, my head inside the water. In the water, he was holding my ears and laughing. I told him they were burning his drawing book. He kept laughing. And laughing. I was thrashing. And thrashing.
Bio:
CHINECHEREM ENUJIOKE (she/her/hers), TPC XV, is a budding poet from Nigeria. She is an undergraduate at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, where she studies Nursing Sciences. She was shortlisted for the 2023 African Human Rights Spoken Word Contest, SEVHAGE-KSR Hyginus Ekwuazi Poetry Prize 2023, and the 2023 Unserious Collective Fellowship. Her works have appeared in Lolwe, Brittle Paper, IHRAF Publishes, PoetrycolumnNND and elsewhere. Chinecherem is a volunteer reader for Rowayat and the Research and Interviews Editor for The Moulder, a print magazine that publishes girl-child-related issues in Nigeria. She tweets @VCEnujioke.
