because we loved our country
& it did not love us back: the night we died
at the gates of heaven
we dragged our feet like soldier ants & walked
like devils on our way to heaven we wore tattered clothes
& the angels
laughed at us for coming from a crooked country
we carried the holes
our country dug inside the skin of our bones
& fresh bullets fell from
their mouths like hot yam you said we looked dirty
& i laughed
aloud like a rooster & declared that we looked exactly
the way
our country wanted us to look you tore my flesh apart
to see the ruin
that my inside had become & i opened the gates of your eyes
to see
the extent of the flourish of your blemish you said
you were grateful
for the impacts your country had on your body & because
it did not
shatter you as a whole but only crumpled your intestine
& i threw
my tongue against the gates of heaven & threw
my palms to a distance
to worship the creator for shattering my flesh & for
remolding my heart
into pieces you said we did not live enough on earth
but i said it was
not my wish to die together with the body of our country
you said
we did not love the country enough but in what other way
can you show love
again if you have already offered your body we loved
but were
not loved i took bullets for you my country because
i did not know
that you were the one holding the rifle i threw my body
into the fire
for your sake ignorant that the source of the fire was you
you bombed
my skin yet i enjoyed the fondness of the furnace
& although
we were tired we walked as if we conquered the world
when we reached
the gates of heaven we met you at heaven’s gate holding
a rifle &
throwing its breath into the holes of our nostrils
& still walked to you
Ayòdéjì Israel, a poet, writer and editor, is a Pushcart Prize nominee. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Channel Magazine, Eunoia Review, The Deadlands, Ake Review, Defunct Magazine, OneArtPoetry, Sandy River Review, Whale Road Review, Nude Bruce Review, The Bitchin Kitsch and elsewhere. You can find him on Twitter @Ayo_einstein.
