"Nothing" by Eweke Oghenemaro Russell

O mortal man that prides himself in nothingness,

drunk to stupor in the illusion of self-worth,

megalomaniacs!

Bloated creature adrift the great ocean that is life,

devoid of direction,

wretched slave to the infamous wheel of fortune.

Still he elevates himself as high priest in a self -

created sanctuary of pride

Perhaps one day he would watch as life

metamorphoses into one

uneventful and forgotten narrative destined to

gather dust alongside other stacks of

forgotten lore on that old bookshelf

he had inherited from grandfather,

maybe while he collapses from tall stool

on which he sat, elevated

above other mortals equal to himself,

basking in sheer arrogance,

certain that this would be the fall that would break his

neck;

maybe then, and only then would he grasp

just a handful above a glimmering;

that life was a village square

where madmen met to dance a meaningless

masquerade.

An empty calabash sitting steadily upon the

boisterous flames,

constantly fanned by a fair maiden yet worthless to a

famished man.

Word after word we approach the

meaningless anticlimax of the tale of this man,

that is us, a tale scribbled on the wet sand of the

riverbank,

and even as  the rising tide washes it off,

the rhythm of nature torments us with calm whispers

of these dreaded

words forgotten! Meaningless!! Nothing!!!

Eweke Oghenemaro Russell is a third-year student of Accounting and Finance at Faculty of Business and Management Sciences of Federal University Otuoke, Bayelsa state. Russell is the second of three children, a native of Anibeze in Sagbama Local Government Area, however, he spent most of his years in the city of Warri, where he received both primary and secondary education.