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It wasn’t me
Ever heard me laugh without a sound?
I am black
Immutable
That couldn’t be my kisser
It was yellow and red
It was any pick from the rainbow

My hand it was, not me
Not my hand, it’s my finger to blame
Well, just a heady mail from
Ovation consulate

In vain I wrestled
To wed its pace and mine
Into this millennial cave
Where heads ebb to dots
And feelings flight fails not
From no distance to another
Feelings flight alternate

I never cried when I laughed
It wasn't me
It was for ceremony
I disown the smile I gave
I never gave

To subtlety was I never tamed
Still less quick I was
To fail to say, to type
How unfunny
Her joke
How shallow
A persiflage

I was redundant anyway
I and my slow strict bends
I was absent and never missed
The fast one was the lenient too

My animus she missed
Amity she snubbed
She was in safe hands no doubt

How it loved her my thumb
Tablet, tap, type, and send
All in the cast except me

If only my lips got a pass
I would have told her a story
Of how emoji smiled at her
It was not me.



Onyendozi Samson Aja is an emerging writer who attempts to see words in everything around him. He is trained to write legal texts, but he always yields to the drive to write poetry. He lives in Nigeria and may be found on Twitter @SamsonAja.
Current Issue
16 Dec 2024

Across the train tracks from BWI station, a portal shimmered in the shade of a patch of tall trees. From her seat on a northbound train taking on passengers, Dottie watched a woman slip a note out of her pocket, place it under a rock, strip off her work uniform, then walk naked, smiling, into the portal.
exposing to the bone just how different we are
a body protesting thinks itself as a door out of a darkroom, a bullet, too.
In this episode of SH@25, Editor Kat Kourbeti sits down with Vivian (Xiao Wen) Li to discuss her foray into poetry, screenwriting, music composition and more, and also presents a reading of her two poems published in 2022, 'Ave Maria' and 'The Mezzanine'.
Issue 9 Dec 2024
Issue 2 Dec 2024
By: E.M. Linden
Podcast read by: Jenna Hanchey
Issue 25 Nov 2024
Issue 18 Nov 2024
By: Susannah Rand
Podcast read by: Claire McNerney
Issue 11 Nov 2024
Issue 4 Nov 2024
Issue 28 Oct 2024
Issue 21 Oct 2024
By: KT Bryski
Podcast read by: Devin Martin
Issue 14 Oct 2024
Issue 7 Oct 2024
By: Christopher Blake
Podcast read by: Emmie Christie
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