Hopemonger
- Oct 28, 2022
- 1 min read
by Olumide Manuel
this year, my hypocrisy grows. you cannot imagine the weight of lies i’m comfortable with.
at dawn, I call them hopes. at dusk, they become jokes.
dull knives of comedy, shelved in my chest. it becomes a little hard to laugh like i used to,
yet I can’t unlearn my addiction to the passivation of casualties.
it is a survival tool. it is what I teach my students. it is what I will preach tomorrow —
you will be okay. everything will be fine.
Olumide Manuel, NGP IX, is a writer, a biology teacher and an environmentalist. His works have been published on Magma Poetry, Uncanny Magazine, Up The Staircase Quarterly, Agbowó Magazine, and elsewhere. He tweets @Olu_midemanuel.
