He Beckons

Where are you man in grief,
In regret of past decisions or locked in brackets of unanswered questions?

Where are you man in lust,
In a pool of vain imagination or full of scorn from last night’s bile?

Where are you man in doubt,
Trapped in a cage of uncertainties or navigating the complexities of your path?

Where are you man in desperate mode,
Awake in your worries or embracing options that don’t serve you?

Where are you man in unbelief,
Crafting your ways or rejecting help from zion?

God’s hands are reaching out
Bekoning…

Accept His comfort through grief and unanswered questions.

He is reaching out, beckoning…
Accept his help to break free from that habit.

He is reaching out, beckoning…
Accept His wisdom to deal with the affairs of men.

He is reaching out, beckoning…
Accept His peace to calm the raging storm.

He is reaching out, beckoning…
Accept His son that you might have everlasting life.

Imani Dokubo
© 2023

Chief’s son

Imagine just for a moment
That father and mother had tossed you
Because you hurt them to immeasurable lengths
Imagine you became an orphan and you deserved to

An orphan on the street surviving
You make a habit of peeping into Chief’s house
You know you shouldn’t, but you just want a glimpse
Of life, of everything good on the other side of this wall

You imagine if you could get a job
You will prove yourself worthy of existing so close to Chief
You daydream of seeing Chief smile and hand you a bonus loaf
Working for Chief would be everything, but you have nothing

The least in Chief’s house outranks you
You have a stained history, and your skills fail you
Chief is kind but the worker must earn the pay he is due
Your orphaned soul sighs as your hope dies anew

Now imagine Chief finds you at your spot
Seems unlikely but what if Chief took you to the other side
What if Chief announced to everyone your speedy adoption?
What if you went from orphan to son in the shortest possible time?

Imagine the servants’ puzzled faces
The ones you envied now wait on your next command
Imagine your shock as Chief takes you to your own spaces
You can feel your lack disappear as Chief holds your hand

Chief invites you to walk with him
Chief says he has grown to love you
Chief has given you an inheritance of all that is his
Chief has made your life completely new

Now stop imagining, the moment is gone
Chief is still in the room, he still wants to adopt you
You don’t have to stay orphaned in this world alone
Take Chief’s invitation, your transformation is due

You don’t have to work for this
But you will learn to walk with Chief
And when you taste the goodness that Chief brings
May you never think you earned this

– Ezeonyeka Godswill
(c) 2022

This is War

Battles to be fought

Wars to be won

Knees on the ground

Prayers to the son

Girding on my whole armour

Helmet wrapped in salvation

Shield engraved in faith

Sword spilling fiery words

Shoes dipped in the power of the Spirit

Going in this might

Losing not to naysayers

Victory is mine

For the battle is the Lord’s

Feet deeply rooted

In the finished work of the cross

Seated in heavenly places

To watch a war already won

I fight not with fear or dread

I fight for the greater is in me

I fight ‘cos it’s a good fight

I fight to take what had been mine

I fight to possess what I had been given

I fight ‘cos I had won

I am more than conqueror so I fight!

Oraegbu Philipa Ada

© 2022

Wheat

I have never seen Everson but my brother he is
And he’ll never sin on my scene, never bother with it
Young Charles and the step-fam would be arguing things
But they tried to eat and clean mouth so forked in our things
UC typing with no network
Cast your words and let’s work
Electrifying verses versus, we wrote culture shock
That reminds of Godswill on the LinkedIn thought
When I write nowadays
I’m Kendrick in my brain
When I’m emotional, I’m Drake
I give UC catarrh like Wayne
I should learn to edit
Ed, Edd and Edit
Today I was writing slower, with no beat when I read it
And yet I found no timing like I used to back ’13
I feel the neck of Nonso pendulum-ing in reprimand
I read my counterparts and there’s no doubting, I understand.
No buts about this, discipline, I need to robot; Oh God, the speed is messing with the taste of the yogurt.
Uh
I’ve known the height and yet the might was not the way I reached it
No poltergeist, I’m hunting light and all the ways to reach it
Beyond delight, in day or night, I sought to not be rigid
To please the wise and, like a kite, be gliding high in reason
Back
To
Work
One week of intermittent prayer
Constant in the fact that you will see me there
No foul play, I am not a Layer
The season is for harvest so I’m switching gear
Trousers and Head gears
These were the past cares
And don’t get me started on a vaccines being scares
Plans of the antichrist, I’m laughing past tears
I thought of saying it earlier on my family group
But they’ll call me disrespectful and I’m getting in soup
As long as souls are told the gospel, I am cool with the loop
Light is always gonna win, when it’s dark imma stoop
Make dem no go use me shine, “Sorry” no be control-z
I’ll be studying all that time, Me and Mine be on the beat.
We’ll be praying and researching, from the back to front row seats
Then I’m studio-ing it all, yeah it’s QuChi and the Wheat!!!

Niel
©2021

Kings and Pawns

“We’re all Kings and Pawns,”
Napoleon Bonaparte once said,
“We’re all Emperors.”
“We’re all Fools.”

Funny he should say that.
We, like two Kingdoms, square up.
Blacks against Whites.
Decisions. Decisions.

What’s in your hand, sir?

King Pawn to King Four.
Small beginning steps we take
Believing we’re each of us
The only star in our own movie.

But Knight to Queen’s Bishop Three.
Counter moves from counter selves
We sabotage our own efforts
And wonder what’s afoot.

We’re all Kings and Pawns
Though each man in his own heart
Thinks himself different from all.
Superior to all the human-ness.

What’s in your hand, ma’am?

When Bishop takes Bishop,
And we face our true desires
We all deny our deepest truths
For Ego’s sake, for Pride’s joy.

What miserable life we lead
As we approach our end-games
This chessboard cleared of all
And the space evident in all things?

Queen to King’s Rook Three.
Discover Check. And trouble finds us.
Run we may, but hide we can’t.
Now matter where we turn to.

What is this you have in your hand,
Oh fallen man – son of Eve?
What is this you carry in your heart
Oh, daughter of the damned?

If King takes Knight Pawn,
I hope never again will it be said
That we sought for what we knew not
And that all man listened to his own heart.

We’re all Kings and Pawns,
A man once said to the world.
And he – that brilliant devil – he was right.
We’re all – all of us – Emperors. Fools.

Ask not what Mgbeke plans for dinner.
Wonder not when Mgbafo will get married.
What’s in your hand, people of God?
Mind your own business.

Nonso John
(C) 2021

You exist not just because you were made

You exist not just because you were made.
You existed in the mind of God long before the world was made.

An idea that sprang to life in the factory of your mother’s womb. Your life didn’t begin at the hospital or where else you were born. It began with God.

I mean, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. How huge is that!

A GIANT OF A MAN YOU ARE! So live from where you first existed.

You are a mind blowing idea from a mind blowing God!

Ijeoma Obi
© 2021

LOT’S BROTHER-IN-LAW

Take me back to Gwags;
Let me remake the lags and crags that tripped me forward into UNN.
I thought myself a goner, no Arsenal, and yet I won the war with a few good men.

Barely two years into
UNN my issues
Pointed me to people
Who would grow me into
Feet that would fill great shoes
Burst ma brain, no pimples
I ran into you people
Now I’m pretty grateful

So if you take me back to Gwags
I won’t need the swag
That once was a must-have
No, right now, I have Christ
That sure peace I roll on
That faith is my profession

Tertiary choices once lay ahead of me
A barrier between
the now then and this
I chose first indeed
But God will have his

Abrahaming through lands,
I was my own Isaac – the Son was in the Man

God asked for my sacrifice
I kept dodging all his eyes
I thought that I was wise
Arguing through all his whys

But let me remake
The crags and lags that made
me trip into UNN
Let’s see what happened then…

The Niel Quchi
© 2020

Crippled Mind

A farmer caught a pigeon
Inside a cage, he nurtured it
Now, the farmer to the bird, was mean
He deprived it of life’s necessities.

The bird was kept in the house
Denied access to sunlight,
It grew up believing in the non-existence of light
After all, it never saw the outside world.

Years later the farmer died
And the farmer’s son, aloud said:
“I have no need for this bird
It is old and as good as dead”

Out he took the cage,
Its door he opened expecting flapping wings,
The bird which should have flown in rage
Stood there, paralysed with astonishment.

The farmer took the bird out of the cage
And carefully set it on its feet
The bird with wings flew not
Its mind was already crippled.

Many of us are like this proverbial bird
JESUS CHRIST has set us free
But still, we hold tight to the past
Refusing to let go of a slave’s mentality

We all have been redeemed
Let’s free ourselves from an old slavery
Let’s soar to higher heights
And not be crippled by our pasts.

Ajegbomogun Olufunke
© 2020