SPORK PRESS
sporklet 12

Michael Akuchie


Lullaby for My Loneliness

The soul of the outdoors wafts towards

my direction with the smell

of trimmed grass & birdsong as accompaniment.

I rebuke the sky that exudes illumination,

the clouds that constrict themselves

to cause rainfall. I paddle whimpers

across the sea of my voice. A streak

of nightmares perfects sleep’s erasure.

I have to satiate this sixty-nine kilograms

of uncertainty till dawn peaks.

I fear the broad streets of daylight & expanse

of buildings more than a room starved of windows.

So the shadows return to curl into me.

Picture the Eponym of an Ache Writing a Poem Like This

The dead is pasture for the worms but who comforts the

survivors? Who agrees to sit with the eponym of aches? 

In 2015, Uncle E was wheeled out from my sight.

Two days after, Aunt L fed the streets her grief

over & over in a marathon crying session while

she stopped once for her mouth to find water

In a dream, the sky watches him pluck wildflowers

from a meadow of lying grass & shadows of birds. 

He remedies the pricks with a gentle rub of the arms.

Never was he a man that unlatched a tongue to cuss. 

Upon waking, it is with a face chiseled the way

a five-year old would appear before they startle

the air with crying. God, I have lost many good

people for you to consider silence appropriate. 

Aunt’s laughter slumps, her face a tirade of wrinkles.

She is the one whose existence is begged to elope.


Michael Akuchie is a poet of Igbo-Esan descent. He is a recipient of the 2020 Roadrunner Review Poetry Prize and is an Orison Anthology nominee. His chapbook manuscript, WRECK (forthcoming Winter, 2020), was selected by José Olivarez to win The Hellebore 2019-2020 Poetry Scholarship Award. He tweets @Michael_Akuchie.