Longlisted Poem: “D is For Delta”
IFESINACHI NWADIKE is a poet, playwright, essayist, editor and founder of Ngiga Review. He holds a master’s degree in English from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. His debut poetry collection, How Morning Remembers the Night (Winepress 2020) was First Runner-Up for the Association of Nigerian Authors Poetry Prize (2020), and was longlisted for the inaugural Pan African Writers Association Prize for Poetry in 2022. A 2025 Fellow of the Black Orpheus Exploration Residency, some of his poems, essays and book reviews have appeared in lHRAM Press, Maroko, Olongo Africa, Nokoko, Ake, Kalahari, Black Boy Review, Praxis, Lunaris, and more.
D is for Delta
Once upon a boom, Delta thought it was oil, lo, it was blood
Since the crude discovery under your waters
Shell took it upon itself to give you BP
& your city flares now, in flames, in angst, in oil
& when it rains, it is acid, a token of returning gas
Delta of the Big Heart, you give your oil to Abuja
& let your rebellious children bunkerer the rest
She built herself a sweet city with your children’s bone,
Oil & blood. In return, she gave you NDDC
To tame the uproars from over-drilled creeks
Collateral insult for your receding greens–
The withdrawing fishes from your shorelines
Ughelli waters are black with crude–crude waters
Crude waves, crude Delta, crude militants
Questioning the whereabouts of the derivation funds
& while they spoke haphazardly in falsetto
The appalled Sharks replied in deep baritones
Their voices hoarse from crass crude consumptions
& Delta burns as it flares. All for oil, all for crude
All about Patani are marshlands elfed with crude abandon
Shevroned of peace, Sapele drinks a different kind of water
As the shell-shocked Warri is agiped into im-mobile ash-lands
The unyielding farmlands of Abraka got drunk with spillages
The oil was too much, Isoko had to choke
Like a people suffering from mineral sins,
Crude waves lash the Delta from shore to shore
Greed-white-greed is the colour of the conspiracy
Against the Delta by crude hunters of the oil grove
& the River Nun still calls but Delta is deafened
By gun duels between the militants & the crusaders of oil
Since Clark & Okara, Delta has seen more men of songs:
Ibiwari, Ushie, Ogbowei, Otiono, Yeibo, Nnimo, Ilagha, Onyema
& the beat goes on. & Ibori’s pockets run over–
& Lugard’s ghost grows greener…
Let us go to Asaba which lies behind the Delta
Facing the Niger. Let us play hide & seek in Igbuzo
If you give me a cup of nkwụ ọcha in Ogwashi
I’ll rinse my thoughts. I, vagabond poet with a loud mouth