POETRY
We see the toughness of your love.
You love your dear country
As a man loves
A child
With Down Syndrome.
Clusters of frazzled cells
Trussed up on a trembling plain.
O to love such a child
Is to hang the nerves on rafters.
Sometimes you wish it dead.
And sometimes you boil
In the head till you
Poke at God the Poor Craftsman.
Chromosome-riot, broad skull
And blunt face. A short drape
Over a short-circuited mind.
You really love this child
With Down Syndrome.
-Obari Gomba
––Dr Gomba, a one-timeshortlist of The Nigeria Literature Prize, teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Port Harcourt
