Ruffian prisoner

February 20, 2019February 25, 2019Leave a comment

I am a man,a loner
A ruffian prisoner
Plagued with joy and sadness
A bird full of feathers and fear

My journey is never left alone
Nor my stay allowed to be
From the east to the west
And from north to south

I am occupied in loneliness
Confused, trapped in emptiness
I am the eagle soaring so high
But sadly caged in the web of the sky

I am a ruffian prisoner
Engrossed deeply in anger
In prayer and in loneliness
I am a man in captivity
Wandering prodigally in freedom
Liberate me,Oh Lord!,liberate me…

Chigekwu David
© 2019

False Fire

February 15, 2019February 15, 2019Leave a comment

” I hunger and thirst

for righteousness –

and not the things

that aren’t mine”

You must

Say it to yourself,

Over and over

Until the gnawing desire

For what is not yours

Begins to fall off your shoulders

Like old skin

Msray©

LIVING & LOVING

February 6, 2019February 8, 2019Leave a comment

Some people claim love does not exist

But let me let you in on a little secret I know

I have firsthand beheld love’s true being, I can tell where it lives

Hold your horses, don’t be hasty without no compass in my hand

I will reveal love’s abode, I will tell you where it breeds

It lives in the morning tea we take together at our table

The prayer we said to our father before we left our comfy rest

It lives in the goodbye we say longing for more minutes but looking forward

To the beauty of the evening when work would have hid its face

Producing fruits we would together feast on – our satisfaction found at home

It takes us by surprise as the little boy that has now become ours

The smile that spreads through our eyes as he speaks songs strung from our heart

It is the worry that lines our face as we tend to a skinned knee, a broken heart

It is the conviction we instill, the purpose to fulfil, the truth we teach and live further and farther

It is in looking back at those years, watching amazed as a son celebrates our love, father and mother

Ezeonyeka Godswill

slowly with a process

January 4, 2019January 5, 2019Leave a comment

The era of greatness
Began slowly with a process
A pause, a close of the eyes

It began in all truthfulness
Not with the light nor in her rays
But in despair and in darkness

Like a hawk process swooped
down into a deep troubling dream
So full of owls and bats

Bitter it was once, bitter is it still
Remembering as brave process
Fought and fought and fell
Without rescuing success

But then, HE came very well
In the wind, in the morning bell
Lifting her from the hollow hell

Into a new dawn of ideas
A splendid tomorrow
Devoid of frown and agony

Indeed, the era of greatness
Began slowly with a process
A pause, a close of the eyes

Ugwu David C.
© 2019

Rain

January 3, 2019January 5, 20191 Comment

It will always come regularly
Anxiety & fear bringing all its disorderly
Sending minds sinking deep like anchors
And hearts into a place of rancour
Economies crashing like MMMs
Shorter mornings, Longer PMs
Success books now providing alternates
As we search for wealth secrets
Yet our Souls are still dry deserts
Aching with pain, looking for comforts
Even when prayers rise up like incense
And our expectations, filled with suspense
Yet the wait is just too long
Our faith might not be that strong
But then incense will becomes clouds
Roaring like lions making sounds so loud
Then It comes
Pouring down its blessings
Wiping off all our facings
The rain draining our Sorrows
Fill souls that have been hallow
Washing away all our pains
Making crazy minds, accurate and sane
Our prayers are never in vain
Because we are sure it will RAIN!

Slavery

December 24, 2018January 5, 2019Leave a comment

I spoke to Runs girl once,
She said her anger is her source
As she was forced to this life
By her Uncle who came like a thief in the Night and her virginity was the casualty
So the penalty is death for all those who now commit the crime of sleeping with her
She blames they, them
For the mayhem she cause their Marriages
‘I wouldn’t pay for damages when my case has been adjourn’
Everyone I told turn a blind eye to my hurt
Now my heart burns with hate
If you stare at me, your fate might be a night to that hell I have been put through
I and my crew will screw all of you till you forget your wives and call us Boo
She like many others are Nigerian avengers
Fighting the ghost of their abusers
And I too felt her pain
A slave to a past that had been stained,
But can be snow if she chooses to let his light glow
Even if life has given her a low blow as she wrestles with her past demons
She can tag him in
He will guarantee her the win
Then the will to talk of his saving grace with pride
Everywhere she goes, she sows seed of hope to girls like her who are still slaves to rippers of souls
Tell them the past matters but the future is what they want to see and behold

Victor Isoje
(c) 2018

Barren Mother

December 17, 2018December 17, 2018Leave a comment

I have an empty well of a belly.
My womb has known nothing but dying blood all my living years.
I have thought of no one but myself,
Fed no one but myself,
Placed no one before myself,
How do I have a womb except it was made to bear another, and yet
I have no idea what it means to pour a part of myself into another.
“A breast feeding mother?”
That’s a foreign name to me.
“A bread winning father?”
Who dares call me?
I am my own hero,
My own salt,
My own light in a shady place,
Come with me and I’ll lead you into the darkness.
I’d snuff the life out of my light because I do not want to share it.
I’m an evil already happening,
A menace waiting to be uncovered.
My tactics are new everyday
Yet my mind is old.
I am a dirty, dirty soul with a clogged up heart and a rigid body.

This is why I have come before the Rock of Ages,
Before The fire that purifies without consuming to ashes.
My tears produce more salt now than I have ever thought to produce.
I do not know when I ever took lessons from the ocean
But my ill will like waves come crushing over me.
I am caught up in my own dirt web,
Spun in my own fear.
I have come to you as a barren womb in need for a child.
I was born to be mother, now may I know a child?
I have come as a fruitless tree in its season.
As hungry fire,
I’m desperate.
As a docile branch,
I submit.
I accept defeat.
Let your rains fall on this arid land again, Lord.
I admit nothing was ever my own;
As I am left with nothing now I am reminded where I come from.
Give me one child, Yahweh ‘tis All I ask.
Surprise the quick-to-conclude with Your quick-to-deliver.
Let them know when their calling-me-barren tongues call me mother,
Let them know from every side of the flipping coin earth,
That You make the Barren Mother.