Poetry: “Home as a Slaughterhouse” by Blessing Omeiza Ojo
Home finds itself to be a place of both discord and potential in Blessing Omeiza Ojo’s poem, with the poem’s narrative pieces lying locked within the repetition of the word “slaughterhouse.” The word itself carries both violence — “slaughter” — and embrace — “house.” The visual impact of the bolded words of the poem being housed within this piece of language heightens the ongoing tension they carry within their story. The speaker of the poem is suspended in simultaneously conflicting actions — “walking the long way into wilderness over staying” while finding that their “ancestors are too willed… / to let their chosen stray.” There are also moments where variations on the repetition create moments of ease in the tension as “prize?,” “glory,” and “grasshoppers” are followed by “sleight.” We may find the poem to leave us with as many questions as answers, and that’s by Ojo’s careful design.
Read Ojo’s poem below.
Home as a Slaughterhouse
Blessing Omeiza Ojo
Blessing Omeiza Ojo (he/him) is a Black bard, art administrator, and editor. He teaches creative writing to children in schools, guiding them to succeed both on the page and the stage. He is the coordinator of Hill-Top Creative Arts Foundation, Abuja. His poems have appeared in The Shallow Tales Review, The Deadlands, Cọ́n-scìò, Split Lip, Poetry NND Column, Lumiere Review, MAAR Review, and others. Omeiza has received numerous accolades including nominations for the Best of the Net, the 9th Korea-Nigeria Poetry Prize, the 2020 Artslounge Literature Teacher of the Year Award, the 2021 Words Rhymes & Rhythm Nigerian Teacher’s Award, the 2022 & 2023 HIASFEST Best Teacher Award, the 2024 Eugenia Abu/Sevhage International Prize for Creative Non-Fiction, and the 2025 Golden Award for Art Administrators. When he isn’t writing, Omeiza enjoys gaming or daydreaming of paradise where he embraces his dead loved ones.
