Uche  Nduka




From Dawn To Gut

First we feast
              then we fast

a running
               conversation

between us
               the mystery

of sex
            in marriage

presence
               appears disappears

arms cross uncross

                     so goes love’s
declension

                   after the fall
of the wall

                   when more
is not enough

                    overshot
the target

                  of that game
of chance







After Fate

Keep going
the words want
to make waves with you

these curves
have suns

you’ll find me
in your garden
of thorns

an apprehension
that extends
beyond milkweed

poetry can’t defend
the brokenhearted
from brokenness

why ask the poet
to maintain a tone
of measured anguish

wandering attention
to learn from
and obsess about







Umbrella

I yield
to your caresses,
your inner
melody,
rays of the cunt,
the destination
you have chosen
without going over
the edge,
letting it ripple,
stroking it,
waiting,
listening,
as your fingers
slide in
and out,
until you reach
the G-Spot
and
head for home.







Attendance

When we’re stretched
to our limits we explore
the depths of our lusts we
become morning fishers messing
about in sailboats sky in our
ears sky in our mouths sky
in the hands in the arms coming
out of nowhere “anxieties of
white fragility” bodies grown past
the moon or a bather that
says never say never batting
her eyelashes







Retracking

The presence of artillery shells.
Bombs were and are intentional
statements.

No room for a slip of tongue.

Ahead of the news anchor.
Murder, disorder, blizzard.
Effulgent prophylactic.

Depth of the rampage.
Starvation.
Refugees.

Hours counting us
when surrender is anything but.

Dross of a diorama.

Reluctant to move on.




Based in New York City, Uche Nduka is the author of 13 volumes of poems, including Scissorwork (Roof Books, 2022), Fretwire (Griots Lounge, 2022), Facing You (City Lights, 2020), and Living in Public (Kristiania Collective, 2018). Some of his essays can be found online and elsewhere. His writing has been translated into Italian, Finnish, Arabic, German, Turkish, and Romanian.



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Founded in 2020, Three Fold is an independent quarterly based in Detroit that presents exploratory points of view on arts, culture, and society in addition to original works in various media, including visual art, literature, film and the performing arts. We solicit and commission contributions from artists, writers, and activists around the world. Three Fold is a publication of Trinosophes Projects, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization located in the historic Eastern Market neighborhood in downtown Detroit. Click here to check out Three Fold’s events page and view a schedule of the publication’s on-site activities.

Three Fold recognizes, supports, and advocates for the sovereignty of Michigan’s twelve federally-recognized Indian nations, for historic Indigenous communities in Michigan, for Indigenous individuals and communities who live here now, and for those who were forcibly removed from their Homelands. We operate on occupied territories called Waawiiyaataanong, named by the Anishinaabeg and including the Three Fires Confederacy of Ojibwe (Chippewa), Odawa (Ottawa), and Bodewatomi (Potawatomi) peoples. We hold to commit to Indigenous communities in Waawiiyaataanong, their elders, both past and present, and future generations.