Skip to main content

THIS THING AROUND OUR NECK


Is life this thing we rescued from two haggling dogs;
the colonial masters and the colonels?
This thing we carry for the ruling others;
this thing around our neck.
For we are not permanent entries in life's log books.
We have appeared because of the need for  black,
when white is to be identified.
we are the hum that comes before the song,
the tapping of the fingers before the Gong.

Some say we will be  reimbursed by death because we really never lived.
And naturally, dying should only come after living.
That we cannot give account of a body we did not use,
but merely moved about!
For all we did was to  breath out gases just like any exhaust pipe!

Is this thing we are doing called living...
Is life really our tennant or the other way round?
this thing that comes and goes!
If you cast a net in earth's oxygen sea,
we're the planktons you're meant to catch.
the living preludes, the election consumables.
We are not the beer but the foam before the beer.
Not the flora or fauna but their dried drools
We are what you waste before you get to what should be wasted.

The elected dictator have said so.
And so does the silence of those who taught him English.
But some will say we do not know how to resist.
but Is the screams of oxygen in our ransacked bodies not loud enough?
Or the thousands who run out of hope before  they've used a quarter of  their birthdays.
The story of which some of us must live to write.
Until just by breathing,
 we obtain the target number of signatures of a billion cubic litres of exhaled air!

© SAMSON ABANNI

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

ÌGBÀ ÈWE (CHILDHOOD DAYS)

By Teslim Opemipo Let our mothers come like harmattan haze and swear by the sacrality of ògún if the roof lying above their fathers' house has never been stoned by a boy in love to walk them out for an evening talk. Let our fathers come like a windy rain and swear by the simplicity of òsun if the path that leads to the village stream has never danced to serenades sang by their soles in chase of maidens with braids so long. Let the elders come like a mid-year harvest and swear by the tranquility of the moon if they've not once tasted the bliss of childhood fermented with the morals of moonlight tales. In our village, childhood is made of water; kinsmen, remember, water is brewed with life and life is the laughter moulded on our lips when we gambol from rivers to trees and to fields painted in the colours of hopping grasses. Brethren, if you hear an elder saying: growing up kills laughter and joy, do not giggle for they once like us tasted the bliss o...

FADING SAPPHIRES

By Ola Vincent Omotade She shouted at me  '' just walk away '' You made my past miserable, you're meant to be forgotten. I tried  to walk gently out of her sight. she then 'whispers'  I hate you ,cheater, devil  she said. Then i knelt down and from my sour mouth,I said "Could me and you with fates conspire,to break this sorry scheme of a thing entire. Cos my glances nowadays are now in glimpse. She looked  at me and replied i give you just five minutes. Then i knew i had to do more of poetry and not planning. So i started this way Clouds and Darkness were round about me. Just like the first time i saw your face. And After your lightning enlightened my world, there was a great race in my heart. The way my heart beats radically still wont Change. so I wept bitterly upon the mountains and upon the Hills and it seems someone is taking me away.. Waters cannot quench our love neither can flood drown it....wait Just mention, e...

SALEWA

By Jonathan Oladeji I don’t know how many people have met Salewa before, even if it is not the Salewa I am talking about. What can you say is common about every Salewa? It’s usually their room mates that can testify better. I met Salewa in my 200 level and she told me her name was Sally. I stared at her for hours before managing to pick a seat behind her in the then AUD 2 on the Great Ife campus. Salewa is the typical tall, slim, dark and beautiful (TSDB) girl. I approached with all caution because I wanted to make a good impression. Even though I am not much of a fashionista, I could see her wrist bracelet, earrings and neck-piece were a complete set out of an A-Class boutique. Salewa was not the bend-down select kind of girl. I wanted to break out of that circle too by all means. We talked awkwardly at first, then kicked off with a bit of more fashion related gist as I noticed that was all she wanted to talk about. I actually wanted to talk about drawing boards and painting c...