By Elisha Oluyemi
i ask a psychiatrist for the origin of madness. he leads me to a field and points at the skies, that
vast spread of clouds that remains ever same, except for the swirling rush that reminds of my
father’s doomsday phrasing: trouble is brewing. we will all drink from this cup.
the psychiatrist fixes a gaze on me and rakes it up, squinting.
—what do you see up there? he asks.
—er… raging skies. pent-up ire, i answer, scowling a frown, wondering how the hell this relates
to my question.
—anything else?
—nothing. except that the skies cover us all.
an airplane barrels across the skies. the psychiatrist coughs. in the distance, balls of smoke spiral
into the atmosphere, like twerking rockets shot from industries’ chimneys. then a brief shower
drips over us. the psychiatrist shivers, grabs my hand and pulls a run towards an array of
marigold flowers sprouted ahead. the yellow blossoms, before our eyes, morph into sickening
black. deathly black. and wilt away as our eyes ease closer to it. i glance at the shower drips on
my skin, wondering if they will blacken and melt my skin, too. but i wait in vain.
—isn’t this crazy, i grumble.
—it is. because it comes from up there; we put it up there, says the psychiatrist, pointing at the
sky. he continues: it’s like tested endurance: when it fails, it bursts open like a bloated corpse.
—where we going?
—you asked for the origin of madness.
—huh, yeah.
—it began when we targeted the skies.
Elisha Oluyemi is the editor-in-chief at Fiery Scribe Review. He won the 2022 Lagos-HCAF Writing Contest (Prose Category), and came first runner-up in both the Shuzia 2021 Short Story Contest (2nd Ed.) and 2022 Flash Fiction Contest. He was shortlisted for the 2022 Young Writers and Creators Award (Short Story Category). He also co-edited the PROFWIC Crime Fiction Anthology, Vol 1. Elisha has writing in literary journals, including Mystery Tribune, The Hooghly Review, Brittle Paper, Entropy Mag, African Writer, Salamander Ink, Erato Mag, Neurological, Kalahari Review, Nymphs, The Shallow Tales Review, OBBLT, Sledgehammer, Adoxography, Paracosm Literary, Arts Lounge, and elsewhere. Elisha writes in the psychological and literary fiction genres. Find him on Twitter @ylisha_cs.
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