The Funeral

I buried him here

beneath this ocean sand

is where I dug a hole and buried him

When I met him in December,

he had promised me the world,

that his friendship would stand

so tall by my side, like his legs on my bed.

In January he fled

and the heart he awoken split and flipped

and the joy he created dried, and cracked

and the words he spoke wore thorns for thongs.

I buried him here,

beneath this washed sand.

I counted each grain I placed in his grave,

one for each second I drowned believing him.

Bura-Bari Vincent Nwilo

Bura-Bari Nwilo was born in Rivers State but he is resident in the university town called Nsukka, in Enugu State, Nigeria. He is a poet and author of two books of short stories, A Tiny Place Called Happiness, 2016 and The Colour of a Thing Believed, 2018.