2 | nigeria is (not) home

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to me/ daughter of igbo parents

nigeria exists in theory/ not in practice.

a fictional reality/ a place i've learnt second-hand:

from the accounts strangers/ (extended) family alike,

a country reported to me by the news/ retold to me by my mama with childhood fables and folktales she grew up with.

a land too out of reach to ever truly be mine/ a not-quite-home

just somewhere to call that when it's easy/ a place i use to explain away:

my blackness.
my anger.
my impatience.

(and every other negative aspect about myself)

nigeria is a scapegoat/ a fabrication and cultivation of what western journalists told me it was.

it does not belong to me/ but sometimes i want it to

sometimes i want it to mean to me/ what it does to my parents.

but alas, it does not.

- i am born from parents born from a land, i care nothing about

--

decided I'd up the schedule to two poems a week. you are welcome.

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