Pat Ashinze

Lofty Drift

nothing makes
a man look stupid
like misery
and failure.
And love.

i tell you, dear reader -
not because i have drank sour wines;
not because i have seen the sky bleed;
not because my memories have grown
grey beards and have become arthritic;
i tell you this to show you the vanity
behind having an human existence.

the mind of every man is full of grief:
sorrows that sting like desert arachnids and
hurt like the jests of blasphemous demons.
we hide our pains behind our teeth everyday,
praying in sad notes for death to run away,
waiting for God to show his face in the clouds.

if you see a man crying, run!
his soul is filled with shadows.
his memories are naked and wet.
run before his misery spreads and
makes you a city beneath the earth.

happiness requires sacrifice.
it is the reward for hearts
that have chosen to ignore pain
and learnt to live in a world
filled with dangling windows,
punctured destinies, broken stories,
desolate cities and empty rooms.
happiness is not for cowards.
be illumined.

Pat Ashinze is an hybrid of two major Nigerian tribes: Igbo and Yoruba. Writing, to him is the only way he can talk without being interrupted.

He is fluid in his writings, revolving within the axial stream of poetry, prose and what have you.

His works have appeared in The Pangolin Review, Dissident Voice, Vox Poetica, Academy of Heart and Mind, Writers Newsletter, Tuck Magazine, I am Not a Silent Poet, Communicators League, and Motivating Africa amongst several others.