{"id":2614,"date":"2026-04-24T12:32:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T17:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thespectaclstg.wpengine.com\/?p=2614"},"modified":"2026-04-29T12:10:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T17:10:24","slug":"two-poems-by-chiwenite-onyekwelu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/?p=2614","title":{"rendered":"Two Poems by Chiwenite Onyekwelu"},"content":{"rendered":"

Equine<\/strong><\/p>\n

The pool beside the grass
  is where the dying lie down<\/p>\n

               to live.
      A hunger of sorts.<\/p>\n

I ride my body, now a horse,
       towards where the canals<\/p>\n

                    break.
The world a long eye;<\/p>\n

               punctured by terror.
             When my father died,<\/p>\n

there was first the darkness
      & then there was the door.<\/p>\n

                    Horse
      at a standstill.<\/p>\n

As if it is in the nature of grief
     to inert, to immobilize,<\/p>\n

                   throw open
           the stable\u2019s door<\/p>\n

& take away the sight. Inside &
      inside, the bright red of wound.<\/p>\n

                        Like
              a horse<\/p>\n

bent over the pool, I\u2019m unsure
whether to drink from it or to drown.<\/p>\n

               Look at me.
                 A heart<\/p>\n

cannot be broken more than this.
       My father is dead & I\u2019m riding<\/p>\n

                          at full speed
           towards a waiting light:<\/p>\n

Dust on my hooves. Wind in my face,
         blindfolded.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\n

Non-American Poetry or Portrait with a Horse<\/strong><\/p>\n

there is the horseman telling me how to be a horse
like i\u2019m not the one on my knees i run
towards another war blinded by love & speed
& the ordinary rage of a beast i could be a man too
barking the orders cleaning sweat from my blade
fucking my own hands under the purple night
instead i\u2019m a horse on the run i don\u2019t know where to
or how we got here don\u2019t know a thing besides
the enemy i\u2019m warned is clothed in brass
they may look like me just to be clear
but don\u2019t mind their horsehair & their pretty eyes
they have crossed the border carried the evil scent
they have prayed to the wrong gods & yes
i should be thankful for the little things
the gift of larynx water in my bowl ryegrass where
my mouth can reach & had i not been an animal
of haste i would smell like womb water & talcum
powder be fast but not fast enough i\u2019m slaved for it
like don\u2019t you see the blood in your own human hands
in another life i would ask for the green of the pine
the blue of the dart frog for that invisible hand
nudging a moth towards light right now however
i\u2019m a beast that neighs & there is a city to pillage
how do i stop my hooves from reaching there
how do i stop the weapons how do i stop the man
wielding them how do i stop<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n

Chiwenite Onyekwelu is the author of the debut poetry chapbook Exiled<\/em> (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2025). His poems have appeared in The Hudson Review<\/em>, The Cincinnati Review<\/em>, Rattle<\/em>, The Adroit Journal<\/em>, Chestnut Review<\/em>, and elsewhere. He was shortlisted for the 2025 Evaristo Prize for African Poetry and the Black Warrior Review<\/em> Summer Poetry Prize. He won the 2024 After the End Poetry Prize organized at Oxford University, won the 2024 PRISM International<\/em> Pacific Spirit Poetry Prize, and was a finalist for The Alpine Fellowship Poetry Prize. Chiwenite holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy (BPharm) from Nnamdi Azikiwe University.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Look at me. \/ A heart \/ cannot be broken more than this …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2625,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[110],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2614"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}