Eyes

you stare astounded at my own astonished eyes.
for once, at last, we see.
soon, to feuds and warring clans,
may come this antidote more radical than guns,
more mind-blowing than drugs,
more harrowing,
truly more harrowing - and

yet

nothing more drastic than truly to see the enemy
and his blood; simply to look unblinkingly -
not through our usual black-and-white filters -
but to stare astounded. to stare, and stare until
the truth of sight becomes a mirror to our soul.
until we feel the mettle of his blues,
read his face’s panoply of hues,
his draining pools of dreams, and the
running
streaks of tears and rust…

so that when his blood
comes spurting redly at our thrust
we cannot look
away. no. and we will own his pain as

well

© Chuma Nwokolo, Jr (2008)

Metamorphosis 2

20.8 x 29.5 cms, gouache, black card

Hidden Woman Paintings

Untitled22 & Birth poem

Long Ago, Hand & Eye

Hidden Woman, Torso

Smile, Woman & Child

Bird, Untitled4, Orange

Blue Woman 2 & Jane Roberts poem

Pumpkin, Falling Apples

Disappearance & Elegy prose poem

Metamorphosis 2 & Eyes poem

Blue Woman 1, Raft

Hidden Woman Drawings

Dancer, Woman No 1

Egg, Female

Dress & Dress poem

Regard, Metamorphosis 1

Grounded, Statue2

Woman Looking Out

1998 - 2008

Escape & Return

2008 -

Abstracts

1997 -

Small Portraits

1997 -