I Am Going Higher

By Jonathan Chibuike Ukah

I wanted you to be the first to know
that I have made up my mind to ascend
after I saw a little hole in the sky
through which I could poke my head.
I have been walking in circles,
since I heard the song of the wind
asking me to steal the night away,
spreading my stench around the earth.
My eyes have submerged people in grief
and my heart plunged them into graves;
I have frozen their souls
and blown up their bones with my breath.
Sometimes, I imagined how a flying bee like me,
could bring down the Boeings of the universe,
causing them to disappear without a trace
into the mystery Bermuda Triangle.

Not that the sky was a shadow of love
which I had sought all my life;
but seeing this little hole open to me
made me realise what I must do.
It’s getting too hot here to be with you,
watching the split bodies fall over me,
eyes popping out at my presence
each time I walk in circles, pacing forth.
It’s like the shadow of sadness,
or the dire reflection of Hell
to be in a loveless relationship
and still hope for love to take flight.
There is no time for hope to thrive,
when every hour, a part of me withers.
I decided to follow this rising breeze
to whizz me inside the hole in the sky.

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Jonathan Chibuike Ukah lives in the United Kingdom. His poems have been featured in Lucky Jefferson Literary Magazine, The Pierian, Propel Magazine, Atticus Review, The Journal of Undiscovered Poets, and elsewhere. He won the Alexander Pope Poetry Award in 2023. He was the Editor’s Choice Prize Winner of Unleash Lit in 2024, 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. His Chapbook, A is for Anfang, is forthcoming from Island of Wak Wak.