Floating Bodies

Itua Uduebo

“Ibo landing 8.” Drawing. Donavan Nelson

They tried to warn me
I heard them
Our steel bird flew over an inviting blue ocean
They stretched their arms up to me

“Don’t go! Don’t go! You don’t know!”
White skeletons in black bodies with blacker shackles
“You’ll learn! You’ll see! You’ll weep!”
Skulls unable to express panic

Strange warnings from the dead fell
Excitement! Elation!
Land of opportunity, of chance, of possibility
Red, white and blue sugar in my veins

Green woman with a torch in place of a burning cross
Her daughters learned well

They tire themselves for the sake of our suffering
New ways, new tricks, new language
Dutiful in service to the old laws

One out of forty-five equals out
Sixty years to four-hundred
New mathematics

I believe they tried to warn me and turn the plane homewards
I fear they tried to save me from joining them

Blue ocean runs red at the bottom
Black streets run red with their children
Sins from before the birth of a nation
Unconfessed and unforgiven

Itua Uduebo, born in Lagos, Nigeria, raised in New York, is a part-time writer and full-time over-thinker. A frequent contributor to Six By Eight Press and novelist in need of a literary agent. Loves the sound of a busy city street and empty blue skies. @iuduebo