on my memories, a red ranunculus springs into a bone. i’m hardened for what is to come in this weathered meadow where lions chew dreams & dreamers chew their pencils to death without drawing what they saw while sleeping. it’s 2018, & i’m the first runner-up in Regional Science-fest to nepotism. without having any kinsman in government, i received applause but not the provincial scholarships & the financial prize. they tell me, as a first runner-up, they’ll send no other work but mine to compete for the National Fest title. my childish brain felt so comforted not knowing the reward for being hardworking is hate. i blame the butterflies that flew my belly to cover my skull, they are the reason i couldn’t decipher the purported forgery that came my way. (un)fortunately, the national prize for the winner goes to the school & teachers & not to the student/s. do you see what i live in? do you see my country? to say i’m hurt being born here is a lie; i only desire not being born at all for it is always an adventure to put a smile on your broken cheeks.
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Sylvester Kwakye is a Ghanaian medical student and the author of the micro-chapbooks Ode To My Clinical Rotation (Ghost City Press, 2024) and How To Merchandise Crime (Stripes Literary Magazine, 2024). He also has a full-length collection, Flying From Nectar To Hive (self-published, 2023).