Poetry in Anger!
Do you ever get angry at situations you can do nothing about except to pray? What do you do when your leaders spit on your face? What will you do when you are slapped or beaten up and then be issued with a command not to cry out?
Write a poem!
Poem 6: The Making of a Tin God
Take a mild man in military mode
Prop his dourness in Dodan Barracks
Retire him to mingle with chickens
Then let his kind put him in prison
Get him elevated to Aso Rock heights
And surround him with sycophants
Force hyenas to laugh at righteous jokes
Bag the souls of self-serving senators
Make him send puppies to bark at lions
Finally, add a dose of docile Nigerians
Poem 5: The Pull of the Street
Parents consigned to poverty
Seek religion through their kids,
Boys with bowls in their hands
Girls with goods on their heads.
Ladies of easy virtue
Men of insatiable lusts,
All swallowed up in the dark
Blanketed by costly pleasures.
Hoodlums, armed and masked
Portend danger day and night,
Killing for money and whims
Living and dining with danger.
Politicians and men of honour
Harlotry in alleys and by-ways,
Vendors of the poor man’s bread
Inequity and iniquity on our streets.
13 January 2007/Maiduguri
Poem 4: Problem Has Changed Names
‘Never expect power always’
And we held unto darkness,
We were good at that
So politicians took our money,
Sold our expectations and said
‘Please hold candles nearby.’
But I remember the general
In messianic splendour
Stepping onto the corridors of power,
I remember the ex-general in agbada,[1]
He said water will flow showai![2]
And in our homes and industries
Light will not blink again!
Now water is rarer than gold,
Generators out-sing crickets at night
And the price of candles kisses the sky.
These are the seven lean years, he says,
And all we can do is pray,
‘Oh God, let there be light!’
[1] A flowing 3-piece dress worn by men
[2] The sound of way flowing from a tap
Poem 3: Third Term
He was a soldier
From barrack to state house,
He took his place in history
Content to count his chickens,
He became a modified civilian
From the prison to Aso Rock!
You know the animal called man,
It pleaded for baba
As the only sage in Naija,
The assembly said ‘babu,
Go back to your farm,’
All the ranting before the TV
Did not deceive Nigerians!
Poem 2: Ode to Neck
Hail, oh crooked neck!
Once you were whole
But you inbred to a mere stump,
A sit-tight laid claims on you
He declared ‘I, Neck!’
And elections were rigged.
Hail, oh stiff neck!
Your technologies fail
Yet you uphold an agenda
As Nwosu held onto B’gida,
You only talk di walkAnd pee di pee.
Poem 1: Debt Relief
For the cancellation of debts,
We thank smart alecs from the World Bank
Who led us into the woods and sapped us?
We thank Nigeria’s ‘wisest’ president
For paying back with Ota funds?
We thank Paris, London and Washington
For returning what belonged to us?
We thank the politicians of the land
For having more money to loot?
Write a poem!
Poem 6: The Making of a Tin God
Take a mild man in military mode
Prop his dourness in Dodan Barracks
Retire him to mingle with chickens
Then let his kind put him in prison
Get him elevated to Aso Rock heights
And surround him with sycophants
Force hyenas to laugh at righteous jokes
Bag the souls of self-serving senators
Make him send puppies to bark at lions
Finally, add a dose of docile Nigerians
Poem 5: The Pull of the Street
Parents consigned to poverty
Seek religion through their kids,
Boys with bowls in their hands
Girls with goods on their heads.
Ladies of easy virtue
Men of insatiable lusts,
All swallowed up in the dark
Blanketed by costly pleasures.
Hoodlums, armed and masked
Portend danger day and night,
Killing for money and whims
Living and dining with danger.
Politicians and men of honour
Harlotry in alleys and by-ways,
Vendors of the poor man’s bread
Inequity and iniquity on our streets.
13 January 2007/Maiduguri
Poem 4: Problem Has Changed Names
‘Never expect power always’
And we held unto darkness,
We were good at that
So politicians took our money,
Sold our expectations and said
‘Please hold candles nearby.’
But I remember the general
In messianic splendour
Stepping onto the corridors of power,
I remember the ex-general in agbada,[1]
He said water will flow showai![2]
And in our homes and industries
Light will not blink again!
Now water is rarer than gold,
Generators out-sing crickets at night
And the price of candles kisses the sky.
These are the seven lean years, he says,
And all we can do is pray,
‘Oh God, let there be light!’
[1] A flowing 3-piece dress worn by men
[2] The sound of way flowing from a tap
Poem 3: Third Term
He was a soldier
From barrack to state house,
He took his place in history
Content to count his chickens,
He became a modified civilian
From the prison to Aso Rock!
You know the animal called man,
It pleaded for baba
As the only sage in Naija,
The assembly said ‘babu,
Go back to your farm,’
All the ranting before the TV
Did not deceive Nigerians!
Poem 2: Ode to Neck
Hail, oh crooked neck!
Once you were whole
But you inbred to a mere stump,
A sit-tight laid claims on you
He declared ‘I, Neck!’
And elections were rigged.
Hail, oh stiff neck!
Your technologies fail
Yet you uphold an agenda
As Nwosu held onto B’gida,
You only talk di walkAnd pee di pee.
Poem 1: Debt Relief
For the cancellation of debts,
We thank smart alecs from the World Bank
Who led us into the woods and sapped us?
We thank Nigeria’s ‘wisest’ president
For paying back with Ota funds?
We thank Paris, London and Washington
For returning what belonged to us?
We thank the politicians of the land
For having more money to loot?
posted by Kabura Zakama at 8:37 AM
1 comments
