African Child

Pains......sharp!
searing through my heart

Belly......flat!
rumbling in voiceless protest

And I......battered!
hopelessly longing, for a ray of light

knowing not,
from whence dinner comes!

A Dirge for Bola Akinwumni

Bola Akinwunmi is my University classmate. She died on the 26th of December, 2007.


yesterday...,
you spoke of today
like every other day
life brings across your path.
You call the days by their names
and the weeks, and months,
you have made your friends.
You halt yesterday's dream saying,
"today, I will and shall'
But...,
today is here and you are gone!
We call your name on earth,
but silence echoes our wails,
In the earth where you lay still!

...........................................

But why do you feed mortals
with fruits grown with blood
and when they are ripe,
you pluck them away from life's stem
to feed some parched earth?

Why should mortals be served as meat
on earth's table for farmished worms to feast?

If Only...

If only the moon, the day to rule
And the sun rules the night
Then mortals can labour at moonlight dawn
And recline when the sun burns

If only the masses could rule
And not One ruling Many
For what reason lies in such reality
That One should control the majority?

If only books could write Men
And not Men writing books
For man will distort life’s story
But nature preserves history

If only the man could make his world
And not the world making the man
For the world sets the race
But every man to dictate his pace