my brother, my torturer (xxxxxxxxxiii)
May 8, 2026. Cité de Billes.
Douala. Cameroon. my narrownight always behave like the squire.
it is filled with potholes. and when the
sleeping guitars, the toxic angels &
rebels of my brother wind, it becomes
a gutter of aches. i drown inside the
spraying. my lean breath hurtles and
my body chokes out. the sleeping guitars,
the toxic angels & of rebels of my brother
slaughter all the corners. they bamboozle
it with their horrendous beak. i creak. my
flesh sobs. and i cannot smooth my pain &
my aches wrinkle at the back of my tears.
my brother sprays. he circles me with the
toxicity of the death. and i write this poetry.
———
the melting pot of destruction (xxxxx)
May 8, 2026. Douala.
Cameroon. the games
starts at the edge of noon.
the sleeping guitars are
cremating the song of my
day. i am swinging at the
corners of their evaporation.
i am wobbling. and their games
is wingless. sleep and high
bitterness at the bottom of
my mouth, like the dance of
black ants. then high dizziness,
like a lost plane in a lost sky.
and inside, my bones are
winding, like a broken fling.
and the scents of the day are
stretching out like well-known
torturers. my gut is becoming
once again, the road to the
pain or the canals of the pain.
my breath is losing its bulk. and
i am a mountain of loud suffering.
———
my brother, my torturer (xxxxxxxxx)
May 5, 2026. Cité de Billes.
Douala. Cameroon. i look
inside the night and all i see
is the silly entrance of the sleeping
guitars, the toxic angels & rebels
of my brother. they are expanding
their smell through the awakening
of my nose, they have bamboozled
my body already. like rare apparition.
they are slaughtering it with their
odd mission. they squint at my
pain with their smirk smiles. they are
the giver. they give me suffering.
tonight, they gnaw my flesh with
their poisons. loudly. and my
brother didn’t keep spraying
when i reach the end of the
switch. he keep spraying.
once again. i am screaming.
inside. and my pain is wide.
Josiane Kouagheu is a journalist, writer, photographer, painter and poet from Cameroon. Her works have appeared or are forthcoming in Brittle Paper, African Writer Magazine, Kalahari Review, Frontier Poetry, Prairie Schooner, The Nomad review, Apricity Magazine, Al Dente Journal, Double Dutch Magazine, Barzakh Magazine, Connecticut River Review, New Ohio Review and elsewhere.
