"Help Meet"

 

"Help meet" (Dedicated to Gift Ifechukwudeni)

There are few humans like God

That could see our tears before they come

Draw close to us whenever

They sense our loneliness from afar

Snuggle silently to share our solitude.

Only you can share this cross with its thorn

Bleed and act as if you are not hurt

In every pain you sought my gain

You lost many too precious to find me

Love was all that mattered to you, and still does,

Few go this far in this scorching sun

And never bothered to look back.

Grace is found always on your lips

You wear beauty like a regal rope

Strength lies in your loins,

And you choose to bear me with them

You love relentless like death

And we have chosen that it won't do us part.

You say you worry I will leave 

But how could i?

When I just found the right bone 

That made my life empty all this while.

This is our honeymoon night

I have come home to roost forever with you.

"Lockdown at 67"

"Lockdown at '67"

Like in the days of communal clashes,

Our world became a deserted playground,

A war of pride and power

Is loosed on us,

And every feet is on the run.

Our children walk with tiny heads on  bloated stomachs,

Body tattooed with hunger and suffering,

Foot bare on dangerous pathways

Some reckless piece of artwork

unattractive to human stare 

Smiling faces retract to a frown

Brave men tremble like feverish children.

We are lockdown in a war:

Each day rises with horror 

And falls with many dead.

Life has turned its back on us

And is walking away. 

"Spell Bound"

"Spell Bound"

The evening you walked away from him

The night cast its spell on your rage

Your tears dropped lavishly on your cheek

He walked out on you again!

He didn't say it was over.

He walked on the feelings 

You spread like trophies at his feet.

And left with her, the new lady that's not you.

Your mind were another's, a maniac's.

It muttered strange things to your head.

Your feet walked on and on

Searching to find lost things.

When you saw the pictures of you two

Hanging perfectly on the wall

You heart missed a beat thrice.

You held it from breathing its last

At least not now but soon.

This time it won't be another's hand

Ripping you apart 

But your own bloody hands

Sending the avenger swiftly at the heels of his victim.

Vengeance stood in yours eyes 

Like a drunken maniac 

You're madly in love with him

And this madness is the cord that ties this knot again 

together in another life. 

"When the Face you Detest is You"

"When the Face you Detest is You"

It is easy to stare in the face of sinners

with holy anger streaming from your face,

Smirking gleefully at their foulness,

And priding in your self-bequeathed sacredness.

Because your robes are white,

And your titles high

But, hey, what of your heart?

You leap on every wrong turn,

Crying the law and its damning consequences,

Hell-bent to uphold a law you never held.

Like whips, your pious smile

Scourge their errant souls.

From your fiery sermons, two faced-sword

Proceeds to slash these damned hearts

Beyond the reach of your high-handed salvation.

Every Sunday, you wear your scarlet gown

With a wig hanging loosely on your head,

And a blood dripping gavel in hand,

And then sit infallibly on men' sins

And dispatch them to the hands of cruel Justice

Forgetting you're dust too.

Then suddenly, the pendulum of truth

Swings to this other side,

And you are standing before your foil

The breeze of heaven blows on you phoney soul

Leaving you bare and bereft of your holy fig leaves.

And you stand before His mirror,

Loathing the sight you see

A poor sinner like every other soul.

"Bound For the City"

"Bound for the City"

Growing up in this small village

Felt like a ghost watching his body being interned unceremoniously

I was detached from everything else that had a taste of joy.

Like a stranger, I kept on wandering far away

From the land, from the people, from their dwarfed dreams and shallow fears. 

My soul was like a raptured explorer,

distant lands held peace and hope for me

Far away from the gloom and unanswered questions

That plagued my restless mind,

Spurring up this journey that is set on my feet.

Still, I will take the love of the loved ones along

And the remaining pieces of my cherished rags,

Such precious remains shouldn't be tossed away so easily.

Because its presence breathes the past that I have sworn to part with.

The city they say is a wild,

To survive you must roar and fight off

Other predators like your poor soul,

But at the retreating steps of the day,

You are sure to return home

with a reward as much as your sweat.

Yet my soul is bound for this world,

Far away from the tiny spot under the table of crumbs,

To a world where dreams grow wings like the eagle,

And dare heights unheard of in the sky.

"Conversation with an atheist Lover"

"Conversation with an atheist Lover"

Last night 

before sleep stole the light in your eyes

We talked about making babies in the clouds

And call them angels

And they will be so fine 

That God will be jealous of our Kind.

We laughed out loud

It echoed in heaven

And I heard God sigh

It was deep and throaty

And we wondered why God is always a man.

He could have been a woman 

That sings duduke like Simi

Then we wouldn't bother the angelic choir

"They will just come and dance shaku shaku with us," you said.

You said God can never be a woman.

He is a man!

Maybe that's why he keeps quiet

When men steals into a woman's body like wolves

And run off smelling blood and greed.

I sighed now but more deeper and throaty than God.

I wanted to say I doubted.

I wasn't too sure.

So I kept quiet.

I wondered why such evil lie in man.

Most men?

You said no 

That some are beast and God enjoys watching them feast.

I thought I knew God,

At least better than this,

I really thought I did,

I still do, I think?

What should I even think?

It is evil to think, right?

You told me to keep quiet now 

And write you a poem later

I suggested a happy-ever-after ending

You chuckled, and asked whether there's happiness after?

I said at least the joy of leaving here after is happiness.

You said Good

"Now you know how to think"

"Thinking is outside God"

I asked you how should I think?

You said, "write me a poem."

*********

I woke up minutes later.

I quickly wrote you a poem,

And hopes it finds you there

Where nothing with a deep throaty voice exists.

"Falling"

"Falling"

Keith walks with mirth in his eyes

Like a child that just got a new toy

His feet were quite unstable

Wobbling like he gonna fall.

Has he not fallen already?

Why bother rising?

He stood against love all his youth.

Its presence at home was a sham

"It was only a shadow."

He concluded:

"Since it wasn't at home, 

It couldn't be found elsewhere."

But he met defeat today

Staring into the warm glow of her eyes

He fell like a faint feather

He could grudge or muster a whimper

His heart was finally freed for his prison.

He finds himself in a new world

He isn't so sure how to walk

But he is happy he got something to lean on

If he falls 

Someone that won't let him fall

Like a mother to her toddler learning to walk.