THE GOVERNOR’S NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOUR

A very faithful fellow – the governor’s next door neighbour

For all day he waited indoor.

Inside the heavy bough of the long grass

That adorned the back walls of the official residence.

That was his human nest.

Under scorching sun, he glitters with pride.

Proud head and limbs dripping with torrents of sweat.

A faithful neighour he remained.

Not disturbed by siren.

Not scared by the noisy reveling

Not even the hooting and howlings of the guards

Adamant to the assault by the aromatic invasions on his senses.

The Governor knew not his neighbour, I guess.

Need know him?

He remains as faithful as ever

All the neighbour’s earthly possession lay before him.

Like a hill of assorted bin.  Guarded seriously too.

The Governor’s neighbour knew not him

But faithful he remained and

Vigilant over his household wares and possession

As well as the Governor’s.

All day dreadful as a watchdog he remained

Rain or shine, he remains faithful

By night when all humans withdraw and retire

The governor’s neighbour prowls and could see all

But never to be seen.

He gathers from the sleeping world

Wastages that sustain him all day.

And came that night he could not see but was seen.

A score of men raided the governor’s neigbour

Cowards, jealousy-instigated men

Flatulent with envy

They dispossessed the neighbour of all his earthly acquisition.

And a gross of human hands seized him.

His limbs in uncompromising chains.

His empty tummy greeted the floor of an open-body van.

The engine revved and he watched the trees and wind obey the laws.

The governor’s neighbour was gone.

Not knowing where.

Not knowing the governor

The governor has lost a faithful neighbour

His premises, now desolate.

IN MY ARMS AGAIN

You’re in my arms again

My beloved.

To feel the warmth of my love anew.

And inhale the fragrance of my burning desire for you.

You’re safe in my bosom, to rest your head.

And hear the silent whispers of my heart and

The thudding echoes of my message of love.

You’re in my arms again

After the dark centuries of misperception

And contorted figuration in the hearts and minds.

Creating the large sea of darkness un-spannable and unfathomable.

Thus:

Reason chased into abyss 

Love tethered up the obscure boabab.

Senses  numbed and darkness ruled.

No solace in mankind, none in this race.

Now you’re in my arms to blossom,

I remember the ugly faces we wore

Each scared and chased Cupid

The dove fled and left us

In the kennel of hounds

The hurtful memories of our red era

When the blue sky wore red cap over a swollen face

The tarmac glittered with red to our deformed glee.

The soldiers, red perceptions, red judgement. All red!

And hatred grew rosy cheeks and wore red eye shadows.

Red moments. Funded by our perforated treasury.

You’re in my arms again

Behold your radiating angelic face

And your coyish lips

I am caged up again and transported

To the distant formative years.

There the true value still lies.

And in my arms rests that true value.

And you are it, my beloved.

SOOTHE MY BLEEDING HEART

My heart bleeds and aches

From the bruises of violent struggles

For release of tethered emotions

And bound conscience

The large blood drops patiently

Like the eyeballs of a robot witnessed

The long years of servitude

And torturous tunnels of humiliation and subjugation

The bleeding intensifies by day

Cause of eyesore sawing deeper

Into my bleeding heart

The sight of yesterday’s magnificence

Decaying in accusing rot of modernity

Modernity of garbage heaps

Ornamenting pleasure parks.

Of highway cesspools drawing to shameful recesses

Memories of paved tarmacs for urban streets

And my heart bleeds the more

For the hollow and wild youths

Impoverished in sense and mien

Raised in arid environment

Where grains of home elements wither fast.

Where succulent milk turn sour and bitter

Deep bitterness that cakes the heart’s kindness

The state of the hordes deepens the wound.

Is there no one to soothe or heal this wound

And stop the cancerous infection?

MY BOSS’S CAR

Wrought and delivered

Same day my boss was born, I think

A great car, it was in its prime

Now beaten by age, a shameless, shapeless ramshackle

Its fading life fainter than my boss’s hope of a better one.

Age-inflected:

Multiple eye-sockets

Trembling fenders

Dowling radiator

Quaking wheels

Choir of protesting body parts

Housing a million cockroaches on sentinel.

My boss’s car:

No spare, no companion, no offspring

Dutiful as ever

Spent up its youthful life in dutiful service

And lost its cute features to romances of exuberance

In course of service

Childless and hopeless though,

She must every morning, embrace and kiss occasionally

The beautiful rocks of the serrated tarmac.

She deserves a merit award

For longevity...  Yes!

For service...  Yes.

And for retaining none of its original form too! 

GATHER THE REMNANTS

Gather the remnants

Put piece by piece on piece

These remnants

My Country

Raped by democracy

Brutalised by leader-contractors and looters

Milked dry by military vagabonds.

For ages like a plain

Washed and run over

And left in ruin,

Is my dear country.

With succession of military adventurers

And instruments of brutality.

Like the torrents of flood,

Ceaselessly suppress the people.

Like the helpless twig under the weight

Of torrential flood water.

Now, what is left?

A mass of deformed sensibility

A shadow of human elementals

A horde of aimless youths-aimless future

A mere rotten carcass

Of maggot infested elephant.

And the auction bell is going faster and faster

The remnants of these remains are the wares

Jewels wrapped in rags?

Cheapened for deal?

But the auctioneer looks like the bidder

No!  Not the son but the servant of the bidder

Then chant with me:

Sell School …  Going! Sell light … going… going!

Sell road … Going!  Sell water … going… going!

Sell house … Going!  Sell hope … going… going!

Sell mother!  Sell Father!!  Sell Aso Rock Villa!

Going!  Going!!  Gone!!!

But still, gather the remnants

For tomorrow!

And tomorrow’s tomorrow.