<\/p>\n
Rarely has an IS&T Pick of the Month reflected so entirely things as they are now. Four young men, ages 15-22, stabbed in south London between the 2nd and 6th November is four too many and Gboyega Odubanjo’s ‘Obit.’, though written and published before these dates, is a powerful and moving reflection on this. In the words of one voter it is ‘a devastating subject expressed with cool restraint and wry humour.’<\/span><\/p>\n Gboyega is a British-Nigerian poet born and raised in East London. In 2018 he completed an MA in Creative Writing (Poetry) at the University of East Anglia. His debut pamphlet, While I Yet Liv<\/em>e, will be published by Bad Betty Press in 2019.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Obit.<\/strong> i will die in london in the neighbourhood <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Additional voters’ comments include:<\/p>\n Another young man, today, in Anerley. Odubanjo engages so powerfully with this crisis. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n I felt gutted by this poem, saddened and angered. It is incredibly powerful! <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Very striking and the repeats work so effectively. I admire the simple language. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Poignant. Being handsome in the news was a nice touch. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n It – quite literally – took my breath away. I gasped. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Every line packs a killer punch <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Subtly surreal and innovative voice <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Gboyega’s poem is heart-wrenchingly honest and political whilst still managing to create beautiful imagery with a strong, assured voice. wonderful stuff.<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n Bloody hell! Memorable before you even finish reading it. A proper punch of a poem<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rarely has an IS&T Pick of the Month reflected so entirely things as they are now. Four young men, ages 15-22, stabbed in south London between the 2nd and 6th November is four too many and Gboyega Odubanjo’s ‘Obit.’, though written and published before these dates, is a powerful and moving reflection on this. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[137],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2018-poetry-picks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17814"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17844,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17814\/revisions\/17844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n(After C\u00e9sar Vallejo)<\/em><\/p>\n
\ni grew up in outside the town hall
\non the high street. i will have been stabbed
\nand my killer will look just like me so
\nno-one will look for him. my body
\nwill remain dead in daylight for hours until
\nthe sky turns more blick than blue. on the news
\ni will be smiling. i will be as handsome
\nas i have ever been. today a young man
\nhas died they will say today a young man has died today
\nit will be a friday a young man has died young o so terribly
\nyoung. i will die again three days later
\nwhen i hand myself in no-one will believe it because
\ni will look just like me. i will look like i have died o so
\nmany times already. i will be survived by myself
\nand the many times that i still have to die.<\/p>\n