Jordan Davis and Renisha McBride.
Addressed to your psyche,
You can hear the murdered entreat:
“Don’t allow another name to join
A homicide report sheet.
Don’t allow another name to join
A homicide report sheet.”
Addressed to your psyche,
the compositions
I’ve written are parts of a bulletin,
The passages transmit
To our terra firma’s retina.
Addressed to your psyche,
My protest wants life
To evict the combustive
And discriminative.
If armed with you,
Lawfulness will live
.
EASE OF PEACE
by Abegunde Sunday Olaoluwa
What is peace?
Peace is not violence’s death
Or a state of no danger
It’s about the Prince of Peace’s presence
With us in storms we felt
Secured are we in His hands
What is peace?
Peace is a joy of hope
A heart rejoicing in God
Peace is the caged bird’s hope
Rehearsing songs for its day of freedom
What is peace?
Ask David of Absalom’s coup
Or of Saul’s wave of spears
The Lord is good
A stronghold in day of despair
We cry for peace
‘Cause our land is breaking apart
Completely into pieces
From the caress of violence
Aren’t we pissed?
Now, O’ Prince of peace
We pray your presence
In our lives and nation
For in this flow of troubles
You are our peace
THE CLOSING STAGE
by Adebesin Ibraheem Adekunle
I’m afraid the end-time is near
See the maddening impunity of depraved heads
The mediocre misfit manning our mace –
The perfidious president, the gluttonous governors,
The crooked councillors, the law-breaker law-makers:
All self-seeking merchants of loot!
See the opportunistic stratocrats
Patriotically riding on the civilians’ profligacy
I’m afraid the end-time is near
See the jagged judges jailing Job than Judas
See the lethal lawyers lustring lies for luscious gains
See the many masked mass murdering extremists
Bearing lunatic loathing for western ways
And shelling to shards with gory thirst
See the many aggrieved Deltan bands
The vengeful victims of our insensate state
Making a Milch cow of abducted fellows
Seized for soiling the Deltan soil
I’m afraid the end time is near
See the many blood-thirsty tribal fanatics
Ruining prized riches and priceless souls
See the many unwaged, disenchanted youths
Willing tools in the hands of pseudo patriots
Fuelling feuds among the diverse peoples
See dismembered bodies strewn on bloody streets
I’m afraid the end-time is near
See the ubiquitous, unceasing crunch
Wrecking the mighty and the limp nations
See once potent currencies now growing irreversibly limp
See corporations crashing for dearth of cash
See nations mourning mass hunger-induced deaths
I’m afraid the end-time is near
See religion now commonly commercialized
See homily now bereft of the customary pious creed
See Morality talk murdered for prosperity greed
See religion now spawning satanic breeds –
Witchery, Wizardry, Illuminatism, Voodooism, Vampirism…
See occult authority prevailing in the world
See daemons ruling God’s houses in saintly guise
I’m afraid the end-time is near
Education now perverts than edifies
See the erudite now very sorrily corrupt
See schools now breeding grounds for sordid socialization
What killed the founding philosophy
PEACE CALL
by Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha
What is the result of dishonesty?
What is the price of selfishness?
What is the state of a loveless society?
You don't fight for peace,
You dialogue
And negotiate for peace.
We tore peace
And unity into pieces
The very day we became materialistic
And self-centered.
Cries cannot solve our problem
We are only reaping the harvest
Of the seeds we planted.
A true and lasting one
We must positively transform
Our lives from inside out.
We need peace not pieces
We can have it
If only we can truly love one another.
VISUALIZE
by Melisha Murray
You never take the time
To visualize
The pain your victims
Feel
Take a minute;
Visualize
Your mother’s cervix
Being beaten like a piñata
Because some guy
Craves
The candy
She has inside.
Visualize
Your father
Hurling his rod of correction
Inside your innocence,
Eating away
At his own flesh and blood.
Visualize,
Strange hands
Gripping neck,
Gripping breasts,
Gripping chest,
As you grip
The last strand of sanity
You have left.
Feel unwanted skins
Against skin,
Tearing your skin,
To force their way in
Feel that knot
In your throat
As you get gripped by fear
Then visualize yourself
Banishing the thoughts
Of raping again.
IF HE MOUNTS THE STAGE AGAIN…
By Mipo Isaac
If he mounts the stage again
We’ll be glad to see him for thirty minutes
Yes, thirty minutes out of a 4-year term,
Thirty minutes out of 2, 102, 400 minutes in 1460 days
If he mounts the stage again
With his alluring smiles;
To say “HI”s and tell his usual lies
If he mounts the stage again
Alighting from his limousine
To inspect our bad roads
And reaffirm;
“The ministry is on top of the matter”
If he mounts the stage again
Clothed in pricey outlandish garment,
Embellished with golden accessories;
To present next year’s well-allocated budget
If he mounts the stage again
On arrival from a German hospital
To commission our newly completed,
Well-equipped community health centre
If he mounts the stage again
In company of ten fierce bodyguards,
To guarantee us 100 percent security
If he mounts the stage again
To introduce 20 obsessed strangers;
As our newly appointed councillors
And our representatives at the senate
If he mounts the stage again,
Like the prophets of Baal
Calling down fire while it is raining
;
Prophesying a bright future in our dark community
Hmmm……
If he mounts the stage again,
Shall we with empty stomach and heavy heart
Stand on aching skeletal legs
Under the scourging influence of our depleted environ?
If he mounts the stage again
Shall we shriek “Amen” “Amen” to his whoppers?
Or we’ll chant “Oh yes”, “Oh yes” to his flattering?
If he mounts the stage again
Shall we praise him with our claps?
And wave high our colourful placards?
If he mounts the stage again
Shall we grip our neighbour by the arm?
And say “Hurray, our prayers are answered”
If he mounts the stage again,
We’ll rejoice, gloat and wallow in our victory;
Beginning with 7 days marathon fasting and prayers
Listen!
Again, I call for your attention.
Listen! Listen! Listen!
Here is a verdict of an angry Nigerian
Just like you
If he mounts the stage again,
I suggest we stone him to death
Or for leniency sake;
Hang him on a tree, just for four days
If he mounts the stage again,
I’ll prefer we hire a perfect sniper
To do his jobs from a safe hide out
If he mounts the stage again
I suggest we bid for the men of the night;
To welcome him at his estate gate
At least his hungry neighbour would be fed “akara”
If he mounts the stage again
Before he descends from the stage;
We should go, deflate his limousine’s tires
Shatter his 21 inches sun proof windscreen
Smash the 4 tinted glasses of his caravan.
If he mounts the stage again
Yes! Just as you think,
These are not too extreme
No, not for all we’ve been through.
If he mounts the stage again
Shall we? Can we? Should we?
Yes you can, But as for me and my pen
We’ll get to partner with a notepad
You ask, “what for?!”
Well, to write another non-political poem
Just like this
THE CRACKER:
By Lennée Reid
On the banks of the muddy Mississippi
A mother wakes to screams
Runs to a tree
Drops to her knees
When she sees
Strange fruit hanging
How could that be?
The seed grew in her own body
She vowed that day
Somehow some way
Come bliss or anguish
She would make that cracker pay
The poem below is an ode to terrorist who abducted Chibok girls in Nigeria on 14th April, 2014 which did
Bring about the BringBackOurGirls harsh tag’s
Popularity worldwide. The Boko Haramists
Should have used the swords of words
To channel what they are agitating
For. In the stead of this terrorism
Which they now practise.
RAMS’ BLOOD SPEECH
by Abegunde Sunday Olaoluwa
#BringBackOurGirls
Quickly silently like a mouse
You creep in havoc devouring adult folks
Poor infants sleeping you bomb their houses
Your fume of inferno got them choke
With silent violent you've killed our children
To protest against education
Vipers! Must you infest with your ignorance?
Anti-book Rams! Why ruin our nation?
Your heartless shots drown kids with blood
Gadzooks! Alleged holy pestilence
Heartless heartlessness you wrath with swords
Like cows, you slaughter men in silent violence
All you folks, Bokos are rams
Rams fight for no cause, causing us holocaust
Beast-like acts, voicing not why you maim
As their tears drips down my pen
I pull my pen straight from my heart
O'er you insurgence I ponder and wonder
How your peace loving ‘God’
Delights in gush of blood
Your en-blundered fanaticism
Kisses us endanger
Blood-sucking Rams! Unleashing terrors
With evil spiced with gloomy horrors
Come out of your fanatic mentality
My pen's tears cries ‘halt this calamity’
Rams! Fight the core not the people
Your spear reaches the rich and poor
Let known your plight with swords of word
Stop this odd speech of blood.
Think rams! Speak your heart in dialogue
Appositely channel your wants
Make your wants clear and blunt
Sheath your sword and stop the splits of blood
RAMS’ BLOOD SPEECH (2)
Recklessness of blood-sucking rams
Butting to hurl the spice of the future
Harmless teens going for their exam
Bomb you off their treasured vision
How swift you truncate their morrow
I tell it to you viper-like rams
Doom! Doom! Thy ruin in nigh
With teeth, carnivorous rams slaughters
Sleeting throats of men as fowls
And wickedly bursting to laughter
O vipers called Bokos are rams
Aren’t your teeth for straws and hays?
Blood of your bros you ought protect
Fight injustice with thine butting
Fight in delight for the light
You’re once peaceful in our garden
How turn thee carnivorous vipers?
Gloominess of you omnivores
Now your brother gazes in dismay
Wondering how you’d gone astray
Like an insane sibling watched he you
Like a gentle lion, he watches you
Awaiting the mysterious cure
Of insanity’s clasp on thee
Think vipers! Bro is waiting
RAMS’ BLOOD SPEECH (3)
O vipers called rams
Thundering via my spine and mind
Like the lion’s roar in vengeance
Flowing through my heart’s chamber
Thought of vipers called o rams.
Fishing the pig you’re in dens
Your brother yelling out aloud
Hoping to have you return home
Hoping to rescue you from doom
Come home vipers to be again as bro
In pain, your brothers fight thee
He sees his wood struck thine hood
Yet care to help treat your wound
Ouch! You yelled, tearing his veins
Smiling, you swords his flesh again
He fights you to rescue you
You fight him madly to kill him
He wants a win-win
You want an I win – You lose
Repent! Bro’s embrace is open.
REMOVE THE BARRIERS
by Christena AV Williams
Oh, Lord!
I cannot understand
Why there is no more love
Remove the barriers
Of racial segregation
Disunity of religion and
The political division
I cry not for blacks or white
However, I cry for mankind
Oh, Lord!
As you created this world,
I knew this was not your plan
Men sought power and greed and for that,
Slavery was to be
No one cares for you or me
So
Lord remove the barriers
Therefore, all and I may live as one
We are royals
We are all kings and queens
So what made you think?
You were more supreme
And we all are created in the image of the king
Oh, Lord!
Remove the barriers.
I DREAM
by Robert Broadbent
I dream of a world living in peace,
The end of all conflicts, no more disease,
Respect for the old, respect for the young,
End to the tanks the rocket and gun.
I dream of a time when hunger has gone,
The whole wide world living as one,
Saying together, “Never no more!”
Hatred and fighting what is it all for?
Living a life that’s meant to be,
Sharing and caring for all that we see,
Pulling together in one human team,
It may never happen…but still I can dream!
DEAD MAN WALKING
by Jude Uchella
Death is my enemy
Life is my foe
I despise both
They won't let me go.
I dream daily
Of inner peace
And eternal sleep
But get a flirting kiss.
The cast of my past
'Sembles many nights
A plethora of vices
Ample to kill my rights.
Yet I am free
But bound by
The critic inside
And daily I die.
Each morn I see
Glowers still
Each night
Spurs to kill.
I can stop my breath
With pinched nostrils
I can go no farther
For a force repels.
So I live on
A dead man...
LET REVIVE OUR LAND
by Justice Mmahi
In the fields of butchers
Swollen corpses fester,
Amidst the gory of blood
Overwhelming the land
Now that the Rain has fallen
And washed them into the sea
We now have to drink
From the ponds of violence
Let’s revive our land,
Encircle our smiles
With iron bars of unity
We have harvested much of hate
In battles of tongue rattles.
Between two pines;
The soul is in need of another
Let revive our land!
But not with blood of heroes
Soaked to dample the heart