But the sands shaping
Your graves!
50. A GAME OF LIFE
A long time ago
When I was a child
I used to climb up
The tallest tree
In my father’s garden, and
Looked down on the world
Spreading before me
All I wanted to be then
Was a tree
To lie with the dogs, it was said
Is to rise with the fleas
So it was
I played a game of chance
With life
Succeeding at last
After so many failures
Due to life’s formula
Of random selection
It was then I realized
That the reality in life is
Not in being the best there is
But in being the best in what and who you are
That I don’t really have to be a tree
To belong
I can be a shrub
And still be green
51. OPPOSING VALUES
Kissed deep in the mouth
By the dreaded serpent
She bares it all to the ravishing public
Her breasts, her tights, buttocks and smiled
The day and the night
Doesn't make any difference
For dinner or lunch, she has to look her best
She is of course, the world's greatest
Applauded and given, a standing ovation.
Touched deep in the heart
By the healing power
He toiled and sweated,
The day and the night, doesn't make much difference
For breakfast or dinner, he has to find a cure
For the dreaded contagion,
He is of course the world's most wretched
Scorned at and given a growing contempt.
52. LIFE!
As I sat brooding
Over what you have done to me
Whenever I weave a dream
You change it into a nightmare
Turning my grey horizon
Into night
But... should I blame you
For being such a sadist?
After all, I should be blamed
For expecting too much
From you
Hauling all my burdens
On your lean back
Expecting all my expectations
To be met by you.
Life! Though you are a sadist
I should say "I am sorry!"
53. A NARROW LIFE
A life secured
A siren blast
To keep away muggers
From his Excellency's glare
A life of ease
With cash to squander, in foreign trips
To keep away snatchers
From his Highness' purse
Mobile girls, mobile drinks
Mobile telephones
To keep away braggers
From his Excellency's ears
A life contracted
In self-styled prisons
To keep away death
From his Excellency’s breathe
A life of misery
Diluted with anxiety
A self imposed illusion and high blood pressure
From his Excellency's ulcers
A life of bliss
Of polished deception
Despicable, alas hatched
From refined cajolery
54. THE TWO FACES
The moon has two faces
The bright and cheerful face
Which everybody knows
Praise and are pleased with
And called it Benevolent
This bright face
Which everybody likes
Shines on seas and set them ablaze
With mysterious sparkle and
The oceans swells
This bright face of the moon
Adores adorations
Smiling down broadly
On the world beneath it
As from a high mountain
Smiles down
At the field of grass
In the coolness of the
Night, and
It sways along happily
With the breeze
Oh! He is so nice
So precious
And they milled around him
As they did
King Solomon
Because this bright face
Of the moon also has
Its legion
And they adore him
Like they did
In the years
The King of the Tribes
But the moon also
Has a dark face
Which most people
Do not know
It is called malevolent
Because it is... really dark
This dark face of the moon
Which many people do not know
Is always in chagrin
And casts a dark shadow
Over what the sun
Had shown upon only a moment ago
It scares people with
Its meanness
In his darkest moments
Nothing moves, fearing
Something lurking in the dark
Pounces upon them
This dark face of the
Moon it is
That turns beautiful
Rocks and mountains
Into monsters
Casting hideous shadows everywhere
The moon portrays the vast
Shimmering sea
As a gate to Hades
And make
Everything good
Look bad
He looks down on Jordan
And calls her Israel
He then snarls and call her Babylon
He and his legion would then say
They have never seen anything good
In her
55. THE KING OF THE ROAD
With the wind blowing through his shirt
And the weed blowing through his brain
The exuberance of youth vibrating in his body
The Okada man is the king of the Road
Going!
Would you want to ride behind his Speeding Highness?
There is no stopping at a red light
It simply wasn't made for the King
Going?
You are sure to reach your destination in time
Or get an appointment
With the O.P.D.!
56. EVER WONDER
Ever wonder why
The vultures disappeared
We used to see them
On the roofs of our houses
We know what they look like
They have claws, beaks
And bald heads
But they have disappeared
Do vultures migrate?
57. BORROW BEAUTY
If you are not beautiful
Then, borrow beauty
From the crimson of
Rose blossom,
From the azure of
Early morning sky,
From the luster of
Grass, ever so green with life,
But most especially
From the goodness of
The self ever so radiant
With happiness from within.
So, borrow beauty
From soft purple silk
From shimmering amethyst Pearl
With silver bracelets, clasped to your wrist,
From the yellowness of the yolk
The brownness of pure mud
The purity of spring water, and
The jet-black moonless night.
Borrow beauty from a peace deep
Within you, and an inner conviction
That comes from contentment in life
58. I AM
At first it’s the world that took me
From my mother’s womb and
Placed me in her arms
Until I grew
Then the world took me
Away from my mother’s arms and
Placed me in the classroom of life
Until I graduated
The world took me by the hand and
Handed me to the Muse
First I sipped
From the Muse’s flowing fountain, then
I gulped until I was drunk
Then the world came
And took me for itself
Kept me for a while, and
Now I am the world!
59. NATURES PEOPLE
They may not have treated water
But they have rivulet and springs
Gushing from the mountain
They may not have sky scrapers
Where city people sit to make laws
That will address their plight
But they have trees, hills and rolling valleys
And mountains, fruits and fresh air
They have the Mount Everest
60. NEOPHYTE
I find it hard
To make distinction
I guess I must be dull
“He is my brother”
“She is my sister”
“She is my friend’s wife”
Who is my sister
Who is my friend’s husband?
All are my brothers
All are my sisters
All are my brothers’ wives
I find it hard
To make distinction
61. THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT
Wild and wonderful
The forbidden and beautiful
Dangerous and bitter
Painful, horrible, forbidden ...
62. FABRICATIONS
A big bowl
A wooden bowl
Fill to the brim
With milk, saturated
With murky water
A book
A big book
Filled to the last page
With knowledge saturated
With falsehood
63. HOUR GLASS
As my mind goes to and fro
Trying to accept, yet deny
What fate awaits me
Will it be bliss with blue skies
Or will it be gloomy and gray
When the mind is so uncertain
One can only hope and pray
Whatever the situation might be
However the situation turns out to be
I would just have to brace up
And embrace it
64. WE DICTATE
Nature is at our beck and call
We can summon spring in winter, and
Bring down rain from the skies
We bring daylight at night
And reap fruits in autumn
We penetrate the vastness of space and
Explore every nook and corner
Of the Universe
We also bring out babies
From a tube, and
Duplicate ourselves at will
While we are peregrinating through Mars
But we also have the Tsunami,
Isobel and Katharina, add to the list
Avalanche, landslide and mudslides
Earthquakes in Turkey, Japan and the flood in Pakistan
65. WHO AM I?
Hello professor!
Hello professor!
Was all I can hear
All around me
As I sat suffocating
Between two giant Iroko trees
One, a cultural, national, international
Playwright, a distinguished gentleman
A Poet Laureate
The other, a cultural, national, international
Diplomat, a Minister
A Statesman
And I,
Who am I, but
A cultural, national, international
Water Lilly, from
A pastoral home!
66. EXPECTATIONS
A sonorous graduate was your ambition to achieve
At last, you arrive at the cherished plat foam
You can’t help but wonder when you look around
And see nothing and no one waiting for you
At the arrival
A false perception or a mirage
That beckoned you
Your throat perched with thirst
You can’t retreat your steps
The world is watching you
“A graduate”, they will mock you
“You are blocking the way”, they will complain
“Can’t you at least try one more time?” Your family will say
“You can’t get a job by being a sitting duck!”
They will frustrate you the more
The government will say, it has spent the nation’s resources
On you, so now, serve the nation
Your parents have spent their meager income
On you, so now, return it
Friends will say ‘you are now a different
So now, solve our problems’
They did not instruct you from the start
In any hand work that you can handle
Neither did you learn
They gave you a book and a pencil
And pushed you to school, and now
You are back, a soppy graduate, with all the wise sayings
Stored in your brain, but an empty stomach cannot say much
67. UNCERTAIN SITUATION
Have ever been caged in
A situation
Where all seemed to be still
Have you ever been in a tunnel
Long, dark and dismal
With no outlet at the end
When all is but bleak
So bleak that many had
Abandoned the journey
How many times have you
Lying on your back, ponder
Until your mind swirls in a riot
Of confused thoughts and suppressed zeal
I continue to look up to the heavens
My mind full of expectations and exasperations
Being faced with uncertain situations
In the haze and maze of the unknown
Not knowing which angle
To turn to, in the future
I have to find the right angle
I cannot let go – no
68. DEMON-CRAZY
Thunder, rain and darkness
And then there is lightening
Lo! We can see! Its democracy
No, it’s lightening that blinds the eye
They rejected affection
And refused love
They went after lust, and
That’s why they are lost
They feel their way; the lightening has blinded their eyes
Now, what was wrong with love
If not for its sticky fingers
When it takes hold,
It refuses to let go
But the lightening has taken away their sight
O dear! O dear!
Liberal affection
It looks at the wound
And say “Oh dear!”
The lightening it is that blinds the eyes
Slimy lusty, lusty slimy
Now where is my slip
Let me slip it on, in case I should slip
The lightening it seems
Has blinded your sight!
69. THE ASSIGNMENT
Now let me see,
This assignment is really
Going to be difficult
For me to explain
Identify and explain
My teacher said
What these words mean.
Whatever they meant
Ah! The meaning
of Dividend
It has to do I think
With dividing something
What else could it mean
Privatization, ah!
This one is easy, it only means
Transacting business in a very private way
I am really sure of this.
Deregulation, another easy one
Meaning doing things in a
Most irregular way
I don’t think I need the dictionary for that.
Due process
Now, this is a though one
Due process! Due Process!!
No, I think this is a Latin word, not English.
Checklist, thank goodness
This is chicken feed, as it
Only means check the list if your name
Is not there, then forget it.
Knowing my teacher Baba very well
Who is as steadfast as Akunyili
As unmoving as El-Rufa'i
And as cool as Ribadu;
He is as meticulous as the 'hired voice"
Mysterious as Mantu
But unsure of his position
As the senate President
I better pass this assignment
For if I do, I'm sure
My grades will shoot up
Like Tafa's bank account.
But if I should fail, ha!
I will be as disorganized as -Iweala's
Economic policies and
Start running around like Ngige
And Baba my teacher will be as agitated as
Chris Uba, may be even
Resign like Adamu and Audu Ogbe
I better not fail otherwise I get Wabara's boot,
And my eyes will look like Jerry's
In the Confab hall after the
Submission of the In- Bracket-Constitution Clause
Amen! O Amen!
For now I would just be as meek as
Masari, pending the outcome
Of Baba's distinguish Mhm! Mhm!
70. WITHOUT HONOR
He who tells the truth
Should be ready to run away
So he lives and tells it again
To discerning hearts
71. WOE-MAN
We brought them into the world
They became smarter
We walk
They ride on horses
And on bikes
We walk
They drive carts and cars
We walk
They fly airplanes and spaceships
We make food to build them
They make arms to kill us
We labour to build
They strive to pull down and destroy
We sing and talk peace
They shout WAR!!!
We love
They hate
We cook the food
They take the choicest part
Woe! Woe –man
What went wrong
With your womb
72. IT PAINS YOU, WHY?
It pains you
But why
Our ailing economy
The insecurity and the dirty streets
And the half necked hungry children
Roaming around aimlessly
It pains me so
Our sagging shoulders
The over confident smiles and
The exaggerated nod of the head