Collection · 5 pieces Poetry

Small Hours

Short-form work about diaspora, memory, and the sea. Written mostly between midnight and four. Some of these are poems; some are essays; a few refuse to decide. Includes a guest piece from food writer Elena Ruiz that somehow belongs in the same room.

Curated by Sam Okafor · with a guest piece from Elena Ruiz · 8 min in all

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Pieces in this collection

No order here. Start anywhere.

1 min First Light A short poem about the hour before the city wakes — the quietest time I know in Lagos. Sam Okafor · Mar 22, 2026 2 min The Aunties A prose poem about the three aunties on my mother's side — the ones who raised us collectively, and the specific smells each of their kitchens had. Sam Okafor · Mar 26, 2026 2 min Lagos, Unannounced A fragment about coming home after four years away — how the city recognised me, and how I pretended not to recognise it back. Sam Okafor · Mar 31, 2026 1 min What the Sea Keeps A poem about the Atlantic, about the things the diaspora left on one side of it and the things they found on the other. Sam Okafor · Apr 5, 2026 Guest piece 2 min Gas Stove at 4 AM Elena Ruiz wrote this one at my invitation — a food-as-memory piece that I think sits inside this collection the way a small bowl sits on a large… Elena Ruiz · Apr 10, 2026

Curator

SO Sam Okafor Wrote 4 of 5 pieces

Contributors

ER Elena Ruiz Piece 5

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Themes

Poetry Writing