The Igbo word for death without the ‘w’ means joy

like striking a match beside a combustible liquid

while standing across the road from a lunatic

cheering for people to die. He speaks in Igbo

so that the word for death rather comes out as joy.

I’m so happy this morning, I have death-joy in my hands, he beams.

This is the way of the world, all the wild ways

is the way of the world. All translations are wild ways,

and if there were a single word in English given to the

beauty of wind streaming through trees, I’d translate that to joy

or death, depending on what first comes to mind.

Maybe in another life, I want to be Borges, brilliant by all standards,

sifting desert sand through the gaps between his fingers and claiming

to have modified the Sahara.

I want to stumble on a pack of re-inventables that I could make mine,

which is why I translate.

I want to awaken in the middle of the night, stuck in the nuanced

originals of words.

Like interpreting bible stories with the same characters

only that in my version, Zaccheus couldn’t see Jesus for he was short

could mean Jesus or Zaccheus was the short one

and people get the story wrong all the time.

And Eve gave the apple unto her husband with her

could indicate Adam’s presence in the temptation scene

and change the whole original sin narrative.

And the prodigal son has chosen to unreturn

how lucky he was to have lived at a time

when he could easily venture out to cemeteries to feel alive

and with no fear of technology finding him.


Chisom Okafor is the author of Winged Witnesses (University of Nebraska Press, 2025) and the chapbook, All I Know About a Heavy Heart Is How to Carry It (Jacar Press, 2025), selected by Jaki Shelton Green as winner of the New Voices Award. He has received nominations for the CAAPP Book Prize, the Brunel African Poetry Prize, the Gerald Kraak Prize, and the Pushcart Prize. He has also received support from the Sundress Academy for the Arts (for the SAFTA residency) and the Commonwealth Foundation. He is presently finishing up his MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Alabama, where he is a Graduate Council Fellow. He tweets @chisomokafor16.

Chisom Okafor

Chisom Okafor is the author of Winged Witnesses (University of Nebraska Press, 2025) and the chapbook, All I Know About a Heavy Heart Is How to Carry It (Jacar Press, 2025), selected by Jaki Shelton Green as winner of the New Voices Award. He has received nominations for the CAAPP Book Prize, the Brunel African Poetry Prize, the Gerald Kraak Prize, and the Pushcart Prize. He has also received support from the Sundress Academy for the Arts (for the SAFTA residency) and the Commonwealth Foundation. He is presently finishing up his MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Alabama, where he is a Graduate Council Fellow. He tweets @chisomokafor16.

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