From the Diary of a Tired Woman

By Stephen Emmanuel Ogboh

the pop of my gum

sliced through the misty silence

blasting in the room

& rings of smoke from his cigarette

sailed into the launderette

where a blood stain hides

under starched, unironed shirts

i roll the gum into a ball

i am the one who’s hurting —

yet, whose apology he awaits

i throw the gum out from the window

but it’s like it’s a part of me

that now takes the projectile’s path

down the empty swimming pool

enough!

enough of this.

Emmanuel Stephen Ogboh is a young Nigerian poet. Inspired by Lisa Smallwood, an American poet, and Chidinma Abiakalam, a Nigerian counselor, he’s written works published or forthcoming on Tuck, Matador Review, Down in the Dirt, Chelsea Review, and elsewhere. This poem is “for women who feel alone and enslaved in their own homes and yet treated as if it is their fault.” Follow the poet @Stephenecdotes

For more poetry by Stephen Emmanuel Ogboh and others, follow Fourth Wave.