OCEAN OF HEALTH
Protracted insomnia
Misconstrued stomach ulcer,
Nay, head through feet
Nausea seemed forever
Endless negative lab tests
Defile orthodox medication
My funeral, watch I alive
Macabre all through
Is this really a nightmare?
A spiritually controlled destiny.
Battle line I draw
Between God and gods
Sacrifices in high places
Live goat-received Niger
Awaiting layabouts feasts
The gods have no mouths
A blue murder
Stepmother for the buck
Nay, office mate another
Produced witch-doctors’ lots
All mumbo jumbo, abracadabra!
Futility, vanity the result.
Camp I must change
Flash was the word
“Come unto me that labour…”
His word lifted my burden.
Ever since, hale and hearty,
Peace within and without.
THE JOKER
Fagged out with labour
Taskmasters’ insensitivity
Jack’s dull boy
“No”, we protest:
Solidarity
for ever3
Our stipend
we demand
Three-six-five plus half
Plight of state chalk workers
On Mbadiwe’s work
Down the loos we protest:
Poor post pupils
In, empty; out, empty
The buck receivers
Forever to recycle ignorance
A bequeath to posterity
A surprise we pull
The magic wand
As old as trade union
Hiring master key
Our wages; or trade dispute
The battle is won!
Thanks to the joker.
SPOILER MUMMY
So is this Eve stray
After trendy and crazy
But hale and hearty
Gallivanting galore
Hubby’s disappointment; and demise
Good training she sowed
Lechery her handy kola
Picked and perfected.
Her daughter, a good copywriter
Eloped in Adam’s nest
Her remains was gathered,
No thanks to abortion.
Billy goat the son
Contacted and contracted
Protracted ailment picked he
Six feet; he went beyond,
No thanks to AIDS.
“Baby baby! Baby boy!!”
“Mummy mee!! Mummy meee!!”
Busy body on the last seed
Meddling at his thirty
A future indeed!
Product of contaminated seed
No siblings to fall on
Spoiled beyond redemption
Neither education nor job
You are not a mother,
You are a spoiler,
A spoiler mummy!
RE-THINK
In sleek cars they cruise
Bags stiffed with chieftaincy
Public aggrandizement displayed
Hordes of hangers-on, his fawn
With handful handout each
Men of the people indeed!
Their siblings tossed of vicissitude
Lay-abouts
Drop-outs
Failures
Hewers of wood…
Charity failed to start within.
Is this not common wealth?
Will of our progenitor
Collected by these greedy pigs
Transmuted into self pocket
But does God allow evil?
A Peacock in openness
A cheat at business
Voracious pigs at home
Dog eats dog in politics
Self-destruction imminent
This is a warning -
Re-think, all you pigs!
WEEPING CITY
Jobseeker:
City of excellence, here am I,
I have come to appropriate my destiny.
Will you mar or make me?
I will dig and harvest golden fields
Armed with my cherished golden fleece
And statutory discharged certificate.
We are like sand on seashore
Every street witness our criss cross
From Federal to State, to municipal secretariat.
Amidst rejection by exploitative private firms
Our shoes cry out from alignment ache.
Catalogues of promises and disappointment,
Yet this is the centre for excellence.
Brother:
Are you doubting this city’s excellence?
Think of the rat-races,
The shameless struggle for commuter buses,
Pregnant and baby strapped women agog
With trumpet mouthed conductors
Who blare and blare 24 hours,
Flying in and flying out.
The excellence of miscreants,
Dubious and dopped ‘area-boys’,
In ambush, stir up pandemonium;
Their field day on victim’s doom.
Wharf rats and pussy cats on prowl
Armed to the teeth;
And protected by the party in power.
The snarling awful traffic parade,
Sweat flowing like torrents of ocean,
Drivers’ mad rush pays off with
Bumper to bumper close marking
Coupled with bashing and brushing galore,
A stalemate and total deadlock.
10 kilometre shuffle for four hours!
Fear and fury abound within and without,
Cat and dog accepted order.
Cat ‘chop’ dog and dog ‘chop’ cat
Bomb explosion, anywhere; anytime.
Genocide, a natural phenomenon
Ikeja bomb blast and Ejigbo mass grave.
Jobseeker:
I am done brother,
Tomorrow I pack and leave this city
A city where house rent hits roof top
As fuel pump price increases.
The filthy decaying streets nauseate me.
Brother, this city lacks excellence,
It is a weeping city.
I shall search further
In the Garden City or Centre of Unity.
Brother:
Good radiance!
You mean to jump from the pan onto fire?
Unless you have a godfather, stay put!.
EXAMINATION FEVER
Success is success my friend
Maverick or Machiavellian
The end justifies the means – QED
One third dozen year in Ivory tower
Golden fleece I covet by force
Options abound up the ladder:
Hiring a tested and trusted mercenary,
Quickly gallivanting for the cash;
But my nude thighs the patrons want.
Anxieties and apologies to HIV/AIDS,
“Away with ‘rubbers’ you bitch!”
The patrons thunder. But should I?
Let me dissect another options.
Torn out texts, white handkerchiefs,
On top desks, GSM handsets or Organisers?
But I’m afraid of apprehension
Plus the wrath of the Malpractice Panel
Micro chips may bail me out
Yes! Micro chips my best bet!
But if I am caught…
That would mean to repeat or even expulsion.
I will be a giraffe, that’s a lesser sin
My neck will scan like TV monitor
With the speed of lightning,
I will be a copier machine
But has the benefactor’s copy the facts?
This is a dangerous game,
I flaunt the tramp card
A prize for examiners;
Their price, any price.
For Adams in kind; for Eves, cash.
But Dr. Christian, is a slave to his principles.
Penetrating him, is to penetrate a brick-wall
Begging him, is like dialoguing with a statue.
My entreats, he rebuffs and rubbishes.
What must I do? I must play safe.
Serious studying,
I now submit to you.
