A stream of light is a lie
and it would be best if you trod with caution;

Every darkness is not a night
and every light does not yield a day,
nor is every sun a sweating tapestry.

Whatever you say, listen to your voice,
the rivers and the wind listen too;

But there is a difference in the clouds
when kitchen smoke rises to a flame,

It’s a brilliant fire, yet knowing this will happen
that there is flooding without water,

The burning is not of fire,
for without practice, you know how to die.

But if you know that your God is able
to create another Lazarus,
would you love to die before your time?

Knowing is nothing, but doing is all,
what is eternity if it means doing nothing?

You love to climb the mountain,
but don’t fall in love with every height.

And if you search for a fire to fall in love
you will meet a burning river with mangled bodies.

Sometimes, when you ask for a garden of roses,
you will find a field of marshmallows;
you will sweat plucking roses from mushrooms.

Learn to play the field to reap your roses,
and this is the best gift of all.

When you watch your body heading for the river,
you’re missing the loveliest stage of the play

---

Chibuike Ukah is a Pushcart-nominated poet living in the United Kingdom. His poems have been featured in, TABs The Journal of Arts and Poetics, Unleash Lit, The Pierian, Propel Magazine, Atticus Review, The Journal of Undiscovered Poets and elsewhere. He won the Alexander Pope Poetry Award in 2023. He was the Editor’s Choice Prize Winner of Unleash Lit in 2024. He was shortlisted for the Minds Shine Bright Poetry Prize 2024 and the Second Poetry Prize Winner of The Streetlights Poetry Prize in 2024.