No One Died Today by Babátúndé Fágbàyíbọ́

Babátúndé Fágbàyíbọ́ | January 15th, 2025 | poetry | No Comments

Poem

Today, not a single soul
throughout this city crossed
to the other side. Oh, what a
respite, what a pleasant reprieve from
the torrents of known losses.

All souls were accounted for at
midnight. The balance sheet of the
living looks okay. Our city’s gain, I
presume. Or is it a case of grief
deferred?

The curious mind had asked whether all
souls were truly verified to be alive. The
plants? The birds? The insects? Relationships?
Hopes? Were they all verified?

Not one single soul died today, at least
the souls that could speak out. The
belly of the poor rumbled today, it died
several times, and resurrected in preparation
for tomorrow’s death. But no one
heard. There’s no point in soiling a
perfect statistic; there’s no point in
taking the glory away from a city that
desperately yearns for good (or fake?) news.

So let’s leave it at this: No one, not a single
soul died in this beautiful city of
ours today!

Poet Bio

Babátúndé Fágbàyíbọ́ is a poet and law teacher. His poems and short stories have appeared in both web and print anthologies such as Poetry Potion, Aké Review, Absolute Africa, Agbowó, Imbiza, Imbizo, Red Ogre Review, Aerodrome, African Writers, Kalahari Review and many others.

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