Apophasis
by Michael Okafor
Today, I am not going to write a single word about it. I will take a walk in the clear-cut repose of the park. I will listen to Fela. I will watch the hectoring winter-white pigeons peck at an army of red ants. I will lasso my mind around a single thought. Perhaps I will write a poem that outruns meaning. It is useless to try to explain anything. I stopped writing about it because I stopped writing about it. It is apparent what it is. I am not afraid. My great-grandmother was afraid when they took her eldest brother. I will not even mention who they are or what they did. I don’t want to write about anything terrible. I will tell you what I would love to write about: Sclater’s guenons; those slaves who died by the dull stab of the Atlantic; the perseverance of ants. It is not easy to preserve a species marked for extinction. But we have to do what we have to do, don’t we? I might as well be the one to write what happened on those ships. You weren’t there, remember? I am the only one who knows. It is my single responsibility. I can’t remember when it became that way. I guess it’s just like running; you never remember the first thing that made you sprint—you just know you have to keep running until the air in your lungs starts fluttering against your ribcage like some frightened bird in a cage. Every person is running from something. My ancestors ran from white men for years. This wasn’t some sport; I checked—they didn’t make it to the Olympics. I’m not even making this up. I have gathered my empirical data from my dreams. I am a scientist like that. My aim is to convince you that history is an approximation of lies. I know the ocean still plots my death. I know how heredity works.
Michael Okafor is an Igbo writer and medical radiographer from Nigeria. His work, which explores the human condition, has been shortlisted for the Bridport Poetry Prize (2025) and was first runner-up for both the Pacific Spirit Poetry Prize (2025) and the SprinNG Annual Poetry Contest (2023). A 2023 SprinNG Writing Fellow and member of the Nwokike Literary Club, his poetry is featured or forthcoming in Prism International, Chestnut Review, The Shore, and Broken Antler Magazine, among others. He’s on X (@okaformichael_) and Instagram (@okaformichael0808).
See what happens when you click below.
What surprising, fascinating stuff can you tell us about the origin, drafting, and/or final version of “ Apophasis”? The first time I came across the rhetorical device, Apophasis, I found it really interesting. And I decided to write a poem built around this idea of bringing something up by denying that it will be mentioned. I have always wanted to write about historical trauma without falling into the predictable, explicit tropes of grief. I wanted to see if a poem could successfully do this, and it did that for me.
Check out the write-up of the journal in The Writer.
Matter Press recently released titles from Meg Boscov, Abby Frucht, Robert McBrearty, Tori Bond, Kathy Fish, and Christopher Allen. Click here.
Matter Press is now offering private flash fiction workshops and critiques of flash fiction collections here.
Submissions
Poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction/prose poetry submissions are now closed. The reading period for standard submissions opens again September 15, 2025. Submit here.
Upcoming
10/12 • Kathy Fish
10/19 • Katherine Garrison
10/26 • Beverly Jackson
11/02 • Robert Scotellaro
11/09 • T.L. Sherwood
11/16 • Susan Buchler
11/23 • Chelsea Stickle
11/30 • TBD
12/07 • TBD
12/14 • TBD
12/21 • TBD
12/28 • TBD