Metabolism

Nothing enters the body
the way it hopes
to stay.

Bread does not
remain bread.
The apple does not
keep its shine.
Teeth close.
Acid goes
to work.
Enzymes arrive
like quiet workers
with no interest
in memory.

This is how
nourishment begins,
with ruin.

The world
eats this way.

Dreams are taken
in whole,
still warm
with ambition,
then crushed
until they lose
their shape.
Only then
do they know
how to travel.

Ideas are swallowed
too large,
too proud
of their original form.
They must be broken down
into simpler sugars
before they can cross
into use.

Pain is not
the point,
but it is part
of the process—
the burning
that says
something is being changed
into something
that can stay.

Empires enter
history
like heavy meals,
rich,
over-seasoned,
certain they will last
forever.
They are reduced,
slowly,
to energy
for those who come
after.

Youth is
raw food—
bright,
difficult to digest,
full of things
the body
has not learnt
how to handle yet.

Suffering works
quietly,
not as punishment,
but as pancreas,
doing its
uncelebrated job
of turning
what happened
into what can be
carried.

Nothing feeds
the future
by remaining
intact.

The world survives
by breaking things down
until they are small enough
to matter.

Majekodunmi O. Ebhohon is a Nigerian poet and playwright. He is the author of ‘The Great Delusion’, winner of the ANA Prize for Drama, 2025. He writes from Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria
sankara101010@gmail.com