Emmanuel G.G Yamba

Angel Togba 
 

I would like to think of you as
a god, that holds secret things,
I remember when your Uncle hid 
behind sickness to escape church 
service, placed a kitchen knife before 
your face, to demand entry into your body,
you dare not say a word to anyone
 
it means you have carried war inside your
body: yelling and screaming with tears burying 
itself in your ears, under a man with the size 
of your father, because in most poems that love
metonymy, you are not to call rape by its name 
 
means words became forbidden to your doctor's
tongue, to say between you and your absence 
here, are days, not too many to make a year.
and when you meet God, show him how you 
know how to make a burning bush - a poem 
that burns the silence in your body but never 
consumes it. 
 

Emmanuel G.G Yamba writes from Monrovia, Liberia. He is a graduate of the University of Liberia, College of Science and Technology, with a BSc in Biomedical Science and the Sprinng Advancement Fellowship. He’s the winner of the Abu Sherif Poetry Prize 2024 and was shortlisted in Poetry Journal 2024. His work appeared and forthcoming in Akowdee, The Muse, SprinNG, The Shallow Tales Review, Afrihill, Libretto Magazine, Inkspired, Kalahari Review, and elsewhere