Salam Wosu | What is the word for killing a country? | Poets Resist

Salam Wosu binges on deep poetry that is inspired by topics that hurt to speak of — heartbreak, mourning, hatred and fear. He was shortlisted for the Korean Nigerian Poetry Fiesta award 2017 & 2019. His works are on or forthcoming in Kissing Dynamite, Dream Noir, PIN, RIC journal and Mounting the Moon (anthology of queer Nigerian poems).

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Poets Resist
Edited by Michael Carter
August 8, 2019

Salam Wosu

What is the word for killing a country?

A) Matricide. Because the country is a maiden wooed into the filthy sheets of slippery sires. They plant their lips on hers to quiet the rage of words / place a hand on hers to quell the shiver / trace a finger to the delta they were never meant to explore / then comes the sword again / a promise to clear a path but digging the earth / stabbing at nature / then comes the shouts of pain sounding like pleasure B) Patricide. Because a dead father is an open gate, a splintered door / a person with no father becomes everything’s child / becomes the face of war & disease paraded on TV / becomes a downward glance C) Filicide. Because a child is a seed of a union / & a union is just something to break when our arms grow as big as our eyes / when we walk, we hate to admit the sound of crumpling dry leaves makes us smile / like placing a hand on the slender bones of this juvenile country / hear it shatter D) Suicide is the word for killing your country, your country killing you?