By Bacopa Literary Review 2024 Free Verse Poetry Honorable Mention Eniola Abdulroqeeb Arowolo
Over the last few years, the world has been riddled with a significant number of tremendous disasters emanating from sociological or political events. One of those challenges that continues to threaten the survival of human beings is war. And war, as Soyinka said, is a human problem. It is in this feeling as a human I have shared in the despair of those who have been displaced by war.
Some of the countries that felt the intensity of civil unrest, war, and genocide last year were Ukraine, Palestine, and Congo. There were various reports and videos that came out on the ongoing war in Goma, Congo. Reading some of this horrendous news, I was unnerved and disheveled to see people lose friends, family, and properties, thereby prompting me to write the poem, Sunrise in Future Goma without Roaming Bullets. As captured in the work, I was yearning for hope in Congo where there's peace, restoration, and ebullience; hence, lines like: “the first sun that cascades upon a dark horizon / is a sign that a meadow awaits at the root of elegy”.
If there's one thing I have failed to understand, it is man's propensity for destruction. It hurts to see that our divide in the world will outlive us all, but it hurts me more to acknowledge that I cannot grant freedom to people like me, so I am often reduced to hope. I wonder how much beauty that love could have fashioned out of this world if lust for violence never stumbled mankind. Yet, as one who leads an artistic life, I must keep hoping.
About the contributor: Eniola Abdulroqeeb Arowolo is a poet and essayist. He won the 1st Edition of Wanjohi Prize for African Poetry, received a honourable mention in 2024 Bacopa Literary Review Poetry Contest, and was a finalist for Folorunsho Editor's Poetry Prize. His works have appeared in 2024 Small Fictions anthology, Bacopa Literary Review, Weganda Review, The Republic, ANMLY, Nigeria Review, and elsewhere. He currently serves as a Poetry Reader for Chestnut Review.
