HOW TO WRITE A SAD POEM

begin your lines from where

grief was the only neighbour close enough

to pass you the lighter.

watch daylight sink behind the curtain.

end your lines from where

you smoked joy out of your life &

the remnants of the flames stayed till daybreak.

Ojo Olumide Emmanuel is a Nigerian poet and book editor. He is the author of the forthcoming Poetry chapbook "Supplication for Years in Sands" (Polarsphere Books, 2021). His works have appeared and forthcoming at Writersegg magazine, Boll Man Bridge Review, Feral, Quills, Poets in Nigeria (PIN), WRR, The Nigerian Review (TNR) and elsewhere.