Yesterday, I ate a lion for free,
an elephant for the asking;
and a leopard for my pleasure.
I ate when I was not hungry,
hunger stitched me into pieces
and I could not eat.
Hawkers and market women
pleaded with me to accept a river,
with two skies for a discount.
If I decided to pay for an ocean,
even the sea would flow along.
Wherever my shadow fell,
there the world was my limit.

Now, the cub of a lion hides from me
and the young elephant sharpens his teeth;
though I was famished, there was no food.
Hunger untangles my body from food;
if I approach his den,
he would devour me from a distance,
his mouth would not touch my body.
The eyes of the market women,
wear the crises of their souls;
they carry their anguish on their lips
with which they plead for mercy.
The ocean and the sea have dried up,
and everywhere, the shadows of their bones
lie sprawling along the flowerless paths.

Jonathan Chibuike Ukah writes from London, United Kingdom. His poems have been featured in the Journal of Undiscovered Poets, Propel Magazine, Atticus Review, Lucky Jefferson, TAB: The Journal of Poetry and Poetics, and elsewhere. He won the Unleash Editor’s Choice Prize in poetry in 2024 and the Second Prize at the Streetlight‘s Poetry Prize in 2024. His poem won the Poem of the Month Poetry Contest for December-January 2025 at The Literary Shark Magazine.