Editor’s Note

A writer by the name Joshua Omeke, contacted me some weeks ago to consider his poem for our E-Edition. Upon reviewing, the syntax depicts mastery in writing, as the poem is centered on the transitioning that everyone has been undergoing since the beginning of lockdown.

“THE PLAGUE IN OUR WAVES”
I like the idea of knowing bright memories are created in togetherness,
I like the idea of knowing being occupied assist to reduce stress,
I like the idea of knowing that I’ve so many places to be in a place and still feel like over working myself does not make sense,
These little emotions remain undefined,
The past events and present planning are finely refined,

For others and me, I recommend always moving under the sky,
But then everything is in disarray,
Since the beginning of a certain plague,
That has stopped us all from living on our routines every day,
It is the first time we’d save the world by staying at home and watching television every day,
We never knew the last time we met our friends would really be a long time away from when we would see them again,
God forbid they become a victim of this plague,

People die, people survive but life never shakes,
This plague has rewritten so many events,
Placed our economy in recess,
Cancelled social events,
Its symptoms, a lot of us are scared to witness, We’ve again been humbled to really fend for our health,

On material items we are always ready to spend,
But taking multivitamin and building our immune system we considered it stress,
Fruits we purchase and did not eat wasted,
Now it is hard to come across fruits in the market,
I want to really know; is this a message from God and his son Jesus Christ that we should learn to take care of ourselves?

Improve on our hygiene and keep away from people for our best?
Obey the regulations by health officials so we would not regret?
Undermine the urge to gallivant unnecessarily on earth? Or even rethink our choices every sunset?

To me, this plague may have caused disaster,
But it is connecting the dots in our life,
Slowly it is pushing us to realize values,
Assisting us to stay put and not be restless,
Controlling the need to hang out with friend excessively, Connecting us to our families,
Providing us enough time and rest under one ceiling,
Giving us the ability to master skills we would later be needing,

At the end I know corona did not kill me or you,
But it has helped us to realize the things we fight for, or desire badly do not have many values as it seems,
People did not run to buy cars, clothes, TV, or fridge,
They ran to buy things they would be need especially the ones they would be eating,
And this has separated value from many things.

The writer being Joshua Omeke is an enigma in his craft. I have had other proposals but in the middle of this lockdown, the work of Joshua is what the team is interested in using as part of our journal. Aside being a poet, Joshua is a novelist and has performed at various open mics across the city of Lagos.

The purpose of this poem I believe was to trigger the masses into self discovery. There are works of poetry that may amuse you but this work resonates you into thinking about the virtues of what you should value. Joshua gathered the expanse of the epiphany in this work of art from his lockdown experience and drafted the poem.