Four Poems
Blessing Ezinne Okah
AMBITIOUS
Knocking down and holding up
Loving here and hating there
Taking this and giving that
Whether bind or whether tear
Scurry scurry goes the rat
All in a hurry man keeps up
For you the obscure pumping heart
Ambition
Goldie treasures all for you
Think no leisure but your bread?
Can’t you see the apian way?
All in that poor little head
That has to lead to goodies’ way
See how it is killing you
You that craved the path you led
Ambitious
Sometimes it’s all so very vague
How alien turns the haven you draft?
How brutally they consume you?
What you create, your little craft
Will consume or harbour you?
You feel the ache, it’s like a plague
Of experience you have a raft
Content !
SHAKE IT OFF
What’s it?
Sour through the bone
What bone?
The big N’s, queen of the savannah’s spinal
Say it is a cancer
Gazelles gadding about the game
Disobeying their curfew at self expense
Buffalos beckoned by butchers
Losing sleep on account of the lords
Rein doe rocking their rear
Regurgitating what predators ate
Greyhounds guarding the ghouls in grunt
Standing to get their pat, a bone and a kick
Falcons fresh from Florence
Egging on their young through their avian routes
Calves come from common castrate camps
Groveling in companies for seeds of own testes
Night birds in nests of nestlings unknown
Neglecting nigh their forts, these they pick to foster-sit
Capons careful to be called cubs
Filling up their cranky core with crying bloods
Ducks daring not to shake as if they are of rubber
Making them stores of stolen grains to earn some plume
And these, and those, and name it.
In the big N, Africa’s giant
Yet the lords lament it
They lament
The sour through the bone
The spinal cancer
As though they see not it be upon them
That gazelles will stay in the ranch if they cease to expend
And buffalos will sleep when they are content
That rein doe will eat when they gag the predators
And greyhounds would race if their ghouls feel secure
That falcons will soar again if they sink their avian routes
And calves will use the forages if they take naught from them
That night birds will sit on nestlings if they are their kind
And Cockerels will grow into cocks and be glad they are not cubs
That ducks will remember to shake if they are not rubber ducks
And the rest will join to shake and together we’ll shake it off
Till the queen stands to grin
And the savannah is green again
All these, and those, till then,
ACADEMIA
See now it’s towering, towering high
The ladder called academia
In a leaves-withering green
On a blood-drunk land
who stands,
See them at zenith grasping, grabbing all
Upon this ladder called academia
In this stem-rotting green
On this blood-drunk land
How unperturbed,
See Professors standing, standing tall
Prof-Esaus too
the one fighting for the right to water our green
The other trading same on the platter of ready porridge
They know what
Hunger,
Lecturers scaling, scaling up
Leak-surers too
the one watering our green
The other working anti-team
They feel what
Hunger,
Assistants labouring, labouring hard
Assist-ants too
The one fetching cans and water for our green
The other licking and sucking away, all up
They crave what
Porridge Servings,
Should this green having no water,
Water not washing blood’s tears,
Tears’ blood flowing sinks this land,
Land sinking collapses this ladder,
Ladder collapsing…oh no
Let not highest fall hardest
Nor even lowest, lightest
Let bring now water for our green
let there be balm for this land
So let us stand
AHOA, 2022
You are at last born today
Like others, without delay
Welcome, welcome
Youngest of years
You for whom mankind yearned
May hearts rejoice when you’ve earned
Welcome, welcome
Most craved of years
Bring us morrows of might and mirth
This breath of health and wealth to birth
Welcome, welcome
Finest of years
We hope to see pleasant surprises
As day by day your sacred sun rises
Welcome, welcome
Most fruitful of years
Soothe them he gulped their fathers
Hearts he left wounded, your latest of brothers
Welcome, welcome
Kindest of years
Bathe them all, who he left battered
Homes and Cities that he left shattered
Welcome, welcome
Most promising of years
You who come bringing twos, triple
Doubles dominate any zero, simple
Welcome, welcome
Bravest of years
Make merry the memories, for men of El
Looking forward to a fairest farewell
Fare well, Ahoa
Most fair of years