Yesterday, I was At myself, telling dreadfully Treacherous thoughts, Dearly as evenings and darkness Onward like tomorrow—death and Time, being treachery, and a separation. Sister cried and wailed, bitten and scratched Everywhere, her body accused and beaten, flogged In formation, in seduction, she fell for whims, Dashing death’s blows, plows, and whims. Would you never dine with me? Overmorrow, but dance tomorrow Round over the beach where the sun rises, naked On beds beside windows, behind curtains, Meeting on moon days where it shines brightest On the shadows where you raped me on The sheet of marital lust.…
Author: Victor Umunna
Dead feathers falling from wings grown tired, Spiraling down in zigzag motion Uncertain like the night, repetitive like moonlight, Round and round, ever turning, and returning to the Unknown, like the dawn and the end of days. Left on the ground, lifeless as squashed fruits, And dead toads, abandoned to waxbills’ beaks, Then claimed by other sister birds of prey Hanging on high branches, with sharp tongues And wings sweeping low to gather them With deep piercing eyes and snatching toes, From earth’s embrace to the gates of heaven.
I’ve always been put off By Christians who bluff About the ‘blood of Christ’. That was until a Christian Knight Took time to show me the way And what the Holy Bible says. I learnt my rescue from sin Was not simple – but a great issue! The Bible said it took the blood: The Blood of the Son of God To wash my sins away And put me into God’s way. I discovered in the book of Hebrews That my sins… For God to forgive? “…without the shedding of blood There’s no forgiveness of sin by God”:…
What great fall that was, That made the Earth shiver with fear And moments and time were forced to pause As rivers dried and oceans shed their tears. This was how the story started, As told by the holy book of the Bible. Demons, devils, Satan, and Lucifer parted After a battle where Angel Michael, able, Cast out evil, greed, and scorn, Spite, deceit, and the man with two horns. Once a singer, now the fallen, One doing nothing but wandering, And with deceitful intents took to learning The heart of man, the tricks underneath, And the reason why…
In the quiet corners Of our cluttered, busy, roving, wandering lives, Happiness often sneaks in, Through a door or window you didn’t know You forgot to close: left open for the breeze to seep in, Like a thief on a summer eve, Unseen, unfelt until it’s already here – early in time – Coming alongside peace, laughter, beautiful conversations, and unexpected cheer. During the chaos of our daily grind and hustle, We pursue joy as IF it’s an ultimate hidden jewel to search for, But it can neither be present in the loud noisy symphonies and rush, But in…
How can we be us Just who we are And nobody else Not scared to be in our skin Our own shell Not subdued, disordered, Mass-incorporated and segregated, Mass indoctrinated, grown in separation Like cancer, isolated like covid How can we be us How can we sing our songs Our culture and traditions In a city, an enclave, a strange land Where we were pulled to Against our wishes, against our will How can we sing our songs How can I dance and leap With my legs in rhythm with my legs When they are both tied With…
It’s up to me To choose not to be You: beyond, abandoned & distressed With melancholic vista, views, press, Media, mind, life’s grit: determination, Regret, grief, prayers, emotions & region Covering: governed by views, laws, religions And schools, politics, books: entities Filled with limited vices and validities Of the earth; determined, incapacitated With lust, felonies with values merited From morals learnt, built to, from the scratch: High places, atop, like Babel Tower scale Ruined; wasted power, will, and endeavors Attempting fervors to reach, to see God: Beware of those who growl and bark like dogs. Sing, howling quality timbres…
Orange, Formed by a combination of Red, Polluted by a venomous Yellow, Camouflaging form, forming neutral Brown, Organized confusions; derived from Black- Darkness, harmonistic and blinding as White Light, and heavy footsteps approaching, growing Green Seeds, dispersed, pollinated and germinated into life; Blue, Recovering like the skies after rainy thunderstorms.
See through the blinds, like a woman’s eyes and her heart, where Hidden are nests full of broken eggs, hatched in malice’s strength Vivour, and stretching ziz-zag lines– the perfect picture, hiding In its yolk- the heart — mind’s core, and breeder of expectations- lost! Tinker of thoughts fizzling like sprite-sprinkled-salt, like diminishing Curtains, closed like windows and shut like doors, in, to quietness- Death, the ultimate unifier and bond with man and all: All who are born, all, all who cried in the line’s end, The journey’s horizon, where your life and death meet at a sharpest bend, The…
You showed and told me, you Loved, you kissed me, on my Cheeks- betraying, hurting me. From a distance, you followed, on, Showing affection and care, And your faithlessness and unfaithfulness Took over you, and led to your infidelity: A curse, disowning, disloyal to your own, ruining them, Before the bird crowed. My true love was faithful Like a ripe fruit returning to Earth, Falling to meet her in union With a holistic connecting natural energy. So was ours (love), not until you stabbed, And left, leaving me with a deep scar, like memories, Like information seen and heard. Will…
It could be better with windows only, Designed wide enough to let the moon’s rays seep in The building with its innocence, like the heart of children, Without shame, open and unprotected with no locks and doors, And handles, hinges, and frames to give up, To blot (transparent to) pain, tears, rain, And the wind from coming in and hurting. Life without doors is without fear And weaknesses, and vulnerability, like God- Spirited with love, giving, perfection, freedom, and no despair: Windows will be where memories form, Appears and diminishing when it slides Like the darkness in the rising morning…
Lord, through thy priests, Hypnotize me with primeval words, Profound tongues, professed on every progeny, And blot out from all hearts all evils, Proffer righteousness in our thoughts, Restrict my lips from confessing profanities, For you are my God, my ALL.
The wind was fast, and it entered the bus through the windows and the open door where the conductor stood, right upon the entrance, shouting, “Aba! Aba! Main-Park, Aba!” Arinze was tired and hungry. His stomach sent signals to his brain and made stubborn sounds. And he restricted them by buying sachet water from a pregnant woman carrying them inside a transparent bucket. She was also carrying a baby suspended behind her back with a wrapper. One sachet was #20, and the woman was kind enough to give him three for #50. He admired water, its importance, and strangeness, and…
I want to tell you a story: It is a true story I want to tell you, again; my friend If I am lying, may Saint Thomas and Appolos punish me! I saw this one myself, not inside one of my dreams; I did not read it from inside a book: It happened right inside my bedroom. Look how thief go catch thief! Listen; let me tell you of these thieves: Last Saturday, the last day of the year, Late in the middle of the night Ladi my wife heard a sound. Wadi! Wadi! She whispered, Wake up and listen:…
The king is but a pawn But, still it moves, like every other, And eats, defecates, face defeats In trying to live, kill and fight, And live along weak pawns, Strong cowards, like others it escapes, Runs like spilled water, Like a pawn, for it- the king lives. 03/11/2022
There is an empty building: House full of beds and ruins, Emptily filled with wastes and troughs, Round it are fences, very high, Encompassing it like a desolate field. Who built this abandoned house, Habited by sleeping unknowns On the hill overlooking the river and sun? The scars written on their faces are of Hopeless demeanor, expressing nothing; Everything they owned had been taken, and Resistance had put shackles on their necks, Eyes, feet, and mouths, all enclosed, bound within the fence. Why do you keep pouring them wine, Helping them heal from the void You made on them- the…
The hen is on a march with her nine chicks, Her cackling sounds urging them on, to move; Endearing them, building, teaching, giving them strength. They walk quickly accompanying their mother- soldiers! Her voice flowing like music, tells them stories; Excited, they are rapt and understanding: Young tender voices whispering like moving wind. They are in search of water and food, and experience: Home is nowhere on Earth, only for bones and waste. Enthusiastically, she scratches it for termites and worms; Yearning, digging deeply, she hopes her children feeds. “Remember to survive! Remember to survive!” she screams out…
Passionate leaves, plummeting, fresh and green, Atop the black soil full of nutrients, Soaked with natures blessing- strong and keen, Struggling with repression and colonist opposition trains Inflicting wickedness and punishment with obsession On dark skin people, old and young, On their own soil, Nearly extincting ethnic groups, races, tribes, Africa- by setting them up against themselves Through blackmails, jealous schemes, false information, long throat, Envy, divide-and-rule, exploitation, civil wars etc. Africa still weeps for Lumumba: For her kind, children mutilated for expression, Revolting, against being trodden upon- like a mamba, Intoxicated, by their dreams- Dreams! Dreams of Freedom,…
Why you tell me many things I no understand, How the world go end and everything go bend for the end? Inside your school, you fire us with books, thoughts and ideas; and Tear our backs with canes and whips when we no wan hear or learn. Teacher, leave me alone and stop teaching me nonsense! Eve, Karl Marx, Adam and Paul, did they talk in my language? Master! Whit-te master, why you become mad And enraged, when children sing, fight, and dance Naked under the mango tree, shading them from the heat: Going round and round in circles,…
You, Africa, Deep like the seas, And as hot as the sun, Hanging loosely on nothing, Bulging, in reckless explosiveness. Africa, Black and powerful, Like the wind’s unforgiving Torrents, unending, washing all Along its paths: riches into ruins, You! Africa You! Buried in agony and plight, Violence, blood, Africa- You, Africa! See your own cry rivers; Beautiful tides, painful, hurt, in distress. I won’t forgive you, Africa, I won’t, For the pains, For the wrath, Tears, strains, broken legs, Disabling us to crawl, for life, For Africa. You Africa!
Blinking lights, Rotating life, Footsteps, sounds of moving streams, Unforgiving weather, betraying kisses Like dried tears, passing waste: All is vanity, like chocolate candy.
For how long have you lustfully taken, For how long have you forcefully raped her: Planting seeds of your choice in her uterine-below, Causing diverse genes on her culture (fake Religions, education and politics); and her children to become her strangers? For how long will you continue in this forceful union, taking what she loves From her, plunging her into deep waters of poverty, disease, destitution and depression? You tear her down with her hands; her lands you devastate with wars; Her children in enmity with each other; you incubated hate in her sons And daughters right in her…
I’m trying to stare better at my image. I look upon myself when I sleep A troubled sleep! I turn wearily, with the voices in my head, Whirling– in circles, hurting, wounding, Wrapping me, enclosed, lost, in time, in memories. I will find in the future, the mirror. My fingers clutched these reflections, And it looked back, clutching, scarring, Touching, wrinkling my youth, mad and furious, Into dimensions and horizons I can see. I saw the weakness of my likeness and inhabited it, Leaving remnants, of disguise, guilt and pain: Feelings print cannot expose, but time, numbers, And truth…
