Longlisted Poem: “When My Man Returns Home from Sambissa”
Daniel Singfuri Yohanna is a poet and a classroom teacher. He is a Fellow of Ebedi International Writers Residency, Iseyin. He is the secretary of the ANA Borno State chapter. He emerged as a Northeast Zonal winner and a finalist of the TY Buratai Literary Initiative 2024 and 2025. He is the author of Heaven’s Gate and other poems, The Trumpet, The Northern Boy, and A Boy from Far North. His works have appeared in magazines which include: Parousia Magazine, WRR Magazine, WilliWash, Poemify Publishers, Fifth Chinua Achebe Poetry/Essay Anthology, The Markas, and an anthology of literary works on BOKO HARAM. He is a postgraduate Student at the University of Maiduguri. He writes from Borno state, Nigeria.
When My Man Returns Home From Sambisa
Before the Cold War, he fell in love like a star
In my arms. How he does love me
And never stops? I feel like a leaf
In his arms, too. I whisper sacred songs
To keep his soul alive with a touch of romance.
He thought he would kiss the stars
While hugging the moon,
But fate wasn’t kind to my soldier boy.
After the war, He returns home with scars
Leaving his sanity behind in Sambisa.
He no longer remembers the taste of love;
He is scared to touch the extra flesh
On my chest in the dark.
His demons fail to let him go.
They reminded him
Of the granites that killed
The soldier next to him
Behind the enemy’s line.
He is lonely in this mansion.
All he does is bury himself.
In my arms, he is
Scared of good times,
Scared to kiss the present.
He takes his hands off my country.
Oh! His palms
Become memory
To every part of my body.
When my man returns home
From Sambisa, he closes his eyes
To see the roads he left behind.
He is afraid to touch love
That I lay down right before him.