Morning Rite
Jonathan Chibuike Ukah
I have listened to the quips of the stars
about the moon hiding its rays and shafts
beneath the glumness of the clouds;
I eavesdropped on the whisper of sunflowers
about the secrets of the sun,
its light dimmed by the shadow of rain;
within these crowding cracks,
a mind-boggling disaster and storm erupt,
worse than the gripe mating of worms.
Between the dying sunflowers and roses,
grief grabs the greater goal of their going.
It's not what I have bargained to tell you,
after you struck a deal with your god
to break down your destiny in bits of wood
like chopped onions in a cooking pot,
and serve them to you in little portions.
Have you not killed and taken possession,
kept everything to yourself, covered your tracks
with the same razing fire of desire
which you affect to replace your despair?
At the time you squatted on the edge of the cliff,
I urged you to be as wise as water,
forever soft but ever-flowing and flooding
into every man’s open door and dream,
into the poor and the rich, the weak and the strong,
into the people who dwell in darkness
and those for whom the light of the night
have burnished the fatal wounds of their spirit.
Watch the foam of the sea ascend to the sky
that has not yet churned out the waves,
it splashed ripples of water on the tongue of leaves,
grass, blades of flowers and roots of bamboo.
There is nothing else to tell you now
which will usher in that much-desired glory,
but that in all your grabbing and griping,
you do something for someone else.
Jonathan Chibuike Ukah
Jonathan Chibuike Ukah is a Pushcart-nominated poet living in the United Kingdom. His poems have been featured in Pangyrus Lit, The Pierian, Propel Magazine, Atticus Review, The Journal of Undiscovered Poets and elsewhere. He won the third Prize in the Voices of Lincoln Poetry Contest in 2024 and the Alexander Pope Poetry Award in 2023. He was the Editor’s Choice Prize Winner of Unleash Lit in 2024. He was the Second Poetry Prize Winner at the Streetlights Poetry Prize in 2024 and Winner of the Poet of the Month December-January 2025 at the Literary Shark Poetry Contest.