CHIDIMMA EWELUKWA

Water Boiling For No One

The news comes in through the wall

before the morning does.

A voice, already tired,

counting what’s left.

Somewhere, a window is open

to a street that no longer argues back.

A dog waits at a gate

that does remember its owner.

In the market, a woman

turns over tomatoes in her hand,

pressing each one lightly

as if it might answer.

A boy folds a paper plane

and does not throw it.

He keeps it in his pocket

like something that could still choose a direction.

By evening, the sky clears

without asking permission.

No one trust it.

Still, a light stays on

in a room with no voices.

No one says why.

Somewhere water is boiling

for no one in particular.

It goes on,

refusing to stop.

Chidimma Ewelukwa is a Nigerian writer whose work explores identity, memory, culture, and place. My writing has appeared in Writer Monk Literary Magazine.