it’s that hour on the clock

where the sun is a belly button

from a distance

and half the nocturnal insects

are mobile

and cricketing

and the wind is windy

and curtains are curled to the side

to let in gold-yellow lights

and the mattresses are rumpling

from our every tiny shift

closer

and we watch the hole between us

refill into an animal

a tiger first

large and hunting

for more than entangled pinkies

for the meet of foreheads

and blend of breaths into milkshake

and then a cub

nestled underneath crisscrossed arms

to nurture a silence that is as wild

and teethed

there’s more to this hour

than the rising moon holds

PS: The title and the line ‘watch the hole between us refill into an animal’ was borrowed from JK Anowe’s poem‘Don’t Say I Never Gave You Anything’ in his chapbook SKY RAINING FIST

Precious Okpechi studies Biochemistry at the University of Nigeria Nsukka. His works has appeared in Brittle Paper, Kissing Dynamite, The Shore, and elsewhere. He is Assistant Editor at 20.35 Africa: An Anthology of Poetry.