Written piece
Evening Dies
Okpara Chinonso
Nigeria
About this piece
A reflective poem set at a graveside, where evening becomes a metaphor for loss and transition. It explores grief, memory, and the quiet acceptance of death, while holding onto the fragile hope of renewal and return.
Evening Dies
Be told:
I lay graciously upon my grandma's grave,
Staring deep, calling into my forgotten memories.
Life spins in circles,
I'm told-
Death comes to all,
But at least not now.
So I watch the evening dance on its gray,
Surely, it gives in to the grasping hands of shadows.
But for now, she displays her boundless beauties-
Golden stripes from dying sun,
Painted across the backdrop of endless blues,
Muffled beneath scattered shades of lifeless clouds.
I watch birds surf the sky,
The beauty of having it all, yet not knowing.
This evening comes with beats, with spines, with life & death.
Though dying, she's certain of resurrection
Maybe not certain,
But hopefully reincarnation.
So I watch her slowly give it up,
As birds chirp, cocks crow, dogs bark,
Insects chirping from the death-night bush.
I silently watch as the beauty of my evening
Finally offers itself,
To the ugliness of the dark.
The moon watches in mocking smiles-
As the sun dies, dragging the evening with it,
Ambitious night creeping in
From dark shades of nameless stars.
Tonight comes
With the cries of strangling evening.
But dying with the certainty of resurrection,
Is no death
So toast to those who lived
While dying...