Roseline Mgbodichinma Anya Okorie - The Walled City Journal

The Walled City Journal

Walled City Journal

Walled City Journal was a passion project. It taught me the importance of literature in human experiences. While working on this project was an honor, I am unable to commit to the hours and work required to make this a successful magazine. At the moment, I feel unmotivated as a writer and therefore, this is not the best moment to continue running a magazine. Therefore, Walled City Journal and Walled Women magazine are going on an indefinite hiatus until further notice.

Walled City Journal

Walled City Journal

Roseline Mgbodichinma Anya Okorie

Thirst

& drowning too is melancholy

how this forceful baptism

makes my heart yearn for mercy,

fervently digging for a bone of attention –

This turmoil folds my brain into an archive of memory & musings {whilst trying to seize my breath }

See, battling your life in a river when science tells you, your body is 60% water is a different kind of betrayal,

How can you win over something that is metaphor for both life & death?

They say dehydration can kill me

& squeeze my organs dry

But what really is the truth

When anyone can die at the bottom of the ocean

For having too much to drink?

No one knows when the water

Has memorised a name

When it has chosen to swallow a bloodline

So I test the strength of my nostrils in the bathtub

I fill my body with latter

I rinse

& repeat

If the water calls my name like my sister’s

Let my lungs be battle-ready

& drowning too is melancholy

how this forceful baptism

makes my heart yearn for mercy,

fervently digging for a bone of attention –

This turmoil folds my brain into an archive of memory & musings {whilst trying to seize my breath }

See, battling your life in a river when science tells you, your body is 60% water is a different kind of betrayal,

How can you win over something that is metaphor for both life & death?

They say dehydration can kill me

& squeeze my organs dry

But what really is the truth

When anyone can die at the bottom of the ocean

For having too much to drink?

No one knows when the water

Has memorised a name

When it has chosen to swallow a bloodline

So I test the strength of my nostrils in the bathtub

I fill my body with latter

I rinse

& repeat

If the water calls my name like my sister’s

Let my lungs be battle-ready

Roseline Mgbodichinma Anya Okorie

Roseline Mgbodichinma is a Nigerian writer whose works have appeared or are forthcoming in The African writer Magazine, The Hellebore, Serotonin Poetry, West Trestle Review, X-ray lit mag, JFA human rights mag, Serotonin poetry, Indianapolis Review, Artmosterrific, Kalahari review, Blue Marvel Review & elsewhere. She won the Audience Favorite award for the Union Bank Campus writing challenge - Okada books, she is the third prize winner for the PIN food poetry contest and a finalist for the Shuzia Creative writing contest. You can reach her on her blog www.mgbodichi.com and Twitter @Rmgbodichinma.