POEM: THE COLLECTOR by Gift Esuh

 I stand at the door of a home

That caught the eyes of death.

I stand and watch them weep,

Over the body of the now deceased.

I feel their grief, it mirrors mine.

I hear their pleas, it breaks my heart.

I look upon their tears and grimace

For I was the one who claimed their lost.

If only my cold hands could reach,

Without collecting yet another soul

And bringing more grief to the aggrieved,

I would comfort their aching spirits.

I watch them instead, sigh a “rest in peace,”

Knowing it is a pointless wish,

For where the dead go, the

Words of the living cannot reach.

Gift Esuh is a Nigerian writer who grew up in Lagos, Nigeria where he obtained his basic and secondary school education. He is recent mechanical engineering graduate from the University of Benin and has been writing poetry and short stories since his early teenage years in 2006. He is an avid reader, an ambivert and likes to spend his time trying to understand the world in which he finds himself and this is reflected in his writing. Over the years, his writing has been restricted to private audiences and social media platforms but he now wishes to leave a stronger, lasting footprint in the literary world.