A man called Death.

 

I’m dying from guilt, the irony is that I’m death

But you get me, I’m sure you do because there’s no other way

I could possible explain the grief and torture that I live with,

Constantly hearing your questions, feeling your tears like

The shock that comes with thunder sounds, only that this feeling never dies.

 

My name is death, you could call me midnight, or the end

Some of you wish to call me names that cannot even be spoken.

But, let me explain, I hope you understand my presence after.

 

You see, the thing is that sometimes I’m a necessity and other times, a prevention

I’m not totally human, I feel your pain but no I’m not human,

The difference is that I hear the cries you do not hear, and the pretense behind those smiles

I hear the silent pleas for an end, the 3am thoughts that to be gone is better

Thus, becoming a necessity, removing pain and putting an end to those tears

My reasons are for help of course, but like you humans I need my peace- it’s always short-lived

But savored nevertheless.

 

Other times I prevent, I see ahead,

I see the things that will happen, and the pains to be felt

 The sufferings to be encountered,

I see battles so great, and losses unexplainable

So I take, I call them, never to be returned

Or else of course you believe in reincarnation

Then maybe you’ll see them again.

 

The thing is though, when I do my Job,

You grief too

Do I take you too?

Do you understand?

You can handle it, that’s why you’re still here

With apologies; the DARK man

20 hearts, 20breaks

Dear 2020,

First you took lives, and it was normal, sad but normal

Then you made a trend of it, kind of like you were testing us

Or maybe preparing us. We cried and life moved on understanding that it was inevitable

Life had to go on – but there were questions as to why you took our saints, the good ones.

 

Second, came talk of war

Accompanied with jokes, because what else could we do

Than to wait and watch –the jokes making us feel better, temporarily but better anyways.

 

Then when all was well, or at least it looked that way

You brought out the big guns – putting a hold on life

It took us a minute, but we saw it through.

 

And somewhere in the middle of all this, you brought out

Your key fighters; placing them at the fore front of this battle line

You gave us rapists and murderers, accompanied with their swords of justification

Telling us why it was so, why it had to be that way, like they were meting out punishments for sins.

 

As if all of this was not enough, as if our faiths hadn’t been through enough battles of ‘God why’

Like we hadn’t already surrendered to the invisible,

You gave us the cries of people, whose only ‘fault’ was the colour of their skin

Begging for their lives from people who breathe the same air, and walk on the same land

Who eat the same food and have equal body parts.

 

THIS, THIS wasn’t enough twenty, twenty

You planted seeds of enmity, and pierced Kaduna

With thorns indescribable, the ashes of humans like burnt offerings to you

One would think you’d be appeased, but you kept at it.

Lives disappearing, like rabbits in magic hats

Twenty twenty, we did not sign up for these tricks

The tickets we bought gave no warnings, this isn’t what we wanted.

To the next show we move.

NOT mygeria, NOT ourgeria. (The wrongrights of this country)

       THE PLEDGE PLEASE

I pledge to Nigeria, my country

Hian!!! Pledge?? As in to promise???

I might as well kiss Nigeria on her cheek, because

I can’t keep to time talk more of a promise

 

 

To be faithful, loyal and honest

Faithful? I’ll give my hand as collateral

On this bet that Nigeria is going nowhere

Loyal?? I’ll be gone in the blink of an eye for just a day’s meal,

I WANT GREEN PASTURES!!!!

Honest??? The truth is far from my mouth, same way our leaders

Sing melodies of untruth, filled with lyrics and rhymes, giving us

One one second excitement

 

 

To serve Nigeria with all my strength,

Shey we’re all lazy Nigerian youths, where from shall this ‘strength’ come?

Is it from my monthly allowance, that disappears even without magic tricks?

Or the hunt for employment as a graduate, or when to Jesus be my Glory,

The job finally comes, I’m angry and starved from micro managing and the

Only enthusiasm in my life lies in the cries of this Nigeria, wey change no gree come to?

 

 

To defend her unity

Which unity?????

There’s no law that allows for normal men

Like you and I to carry guns, which means

I cannot defend myself from robbers and

Angry men who are hungry for the female anatomy

How then can I defend her unity??????

 

Uphold her honour and glory

They said uphold ohhh!!! (Laughter)

My hands are tired from carrying briefcase filled with case files

Standing on the roadside fluffing Taxis, how then can I UP-HOLD??

‘If the tin I dey hold real, no yawa nau’

But they want me to hold something that exists only in the imaginations of people.

 

 

So help me God

Help?? God???

I’m confused- the only time we go to church is Sunday

I mean, to feign happiness, with the recital ‘it is well’

As our watch word and to showcase the latest style.

The only time we’re on our knees, not in prayer but in grumbling,

Reminding him of that which he said and has not done

Forgetting the Christ like goal, letting religion become our escape-

We might as well be lazy Nigerian Christians.

 

2.   A hungry man is an angry man,

      Welcome to Nigeria where everyone is starved, placing us slightly

      No, not slightly, way above anger.

      Welcome to Nigeria where everyone lives in rage, tempers sparking like water on naked wire.

      Welcome to Nigeria where selfishness is watchword, and ‘each man for himself’ is the mantra

    And no I’m not talking about the self-love that is necessary, I’m talking about the unnecessary            placing of oneself above the other, I’m talking about how Lara wants every opportunity for herself,   telling nothing to Lola of these opportunities that would definitely be of benefit to her.

I’m talking about the so called ‘necessary’ evils that enables our conscience to live without guilt.

Welcome to Nigeria where everybody’s business is nobody’s business and your business is everybody’s business.

Welcome to Nigeria where we wear Mediocrity as a regalia, where pot holes as abnormal as they are have become the norm and where the songs against corruption are chanted for show, where there isn’t really any passion to make things right.

Welcome to Nigeria where love is lost and to steal is part of ‘the hustle’, where crimes are fired by hunger and where nothing has ever really changed.

Welcome to Nigeria where only sharp people survive, and sharpness equates your ability to dupe people.

Welcome to Nigeria where innocence is an insult as ‘eye must tear’ and one must ‘shine eye’ because this isn’t really a country it is struggle.

Welcome to Nigeria where “there are resources” as they say but we don’t see them and where our natural resources that we speak of are said to save face.

Welcome to Nigeria where half of the one percent who stay here and ‘make it’ have their hands dirty and the remaining half are actually honest people with honest work.

Where it is war; conscience against hunger, hunger against religion

Where nobody is actually a winner

And where this hustle must continue.