Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - This Jubilee Is Not Golden(Poem)

The new part to poetry

Okigbo

Okara

Opara.

On Friday, 9 August 2013 12:26:24 UTC+1, orunmi...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

We Must Hope Still (for Chidi @ 50)

Chidi,
In the midst of all the pains, agonies and cries in our land
In the rivers of blood
of innocents
where vile men wash their crimson linen
We must hope still

Chidi
In this wilderness where tears and anguish suppress laughter
As stomachs groan for meal
to assuage killing hunger
As vile men decree pain lawfully
We must hope still

Chidi
In this jungle where men bask
In their ability to evoke a groan rather than a moan from our tender babies
damning reason
promoting brutish passion
We still must hope

Chidi
In this forest where insatiate men rape our senses
with bestial frenzy
we must hope...
We must hope that one day minus one today
Good men will rise
One day minus one today
Good women will rise
One day minus one today
We shall chase these beasts away
and create a golden world
Where beasts will no more lurk to plunder the treasury.


Tunji Azeez

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone provided by Airtel Nigeria.

---

From: shina7...@yahoo.com

Sender: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Date: Thu, 8 Aug 2013 10:09:33 +0000

To: <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

ReplyTo: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - This Jubilee Is Not Golden(Poem)

Happy birthday, Chidi! Look on the bright side. At least you are already penning immortality. That's a golden effort.

Arugo Agog!
(For Chidi...)

Once in a while
even in the midst of
the numbing struggles
to scrape a meagre existence
the Arugo motor park
remembers...

Once in a while
even when Nigeria is
ill at ease, and the
Political Leeches are still
hard at work,
the Arugo motor park
remembers...

'You don hear?'
The mechanic said
to the agbero...
'Oga Chidi don dey old o'
'Ehnehn! How old him be now?'
'Him don reach fifti'
'Eewo! Life just start be dat!'

Once in a while
even when it seems
the numbing struggle
will be stillborn
the Arugo motor park
remembers...

And we remember too.



Adeshina Afolayan

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN

---

From: Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi...@gmail.com>

Sender: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Date: Thu, 8 Aug 2013 09:58:12 +0100

To: USA African Dialogue Series<usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

ReplyTo: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - This Jubilee Is Not Golden(Poem)

By Chidi Anthony Opara

 

Daybreak.

Dew-like drizzles

Dulling the bright demeanour

Of this budding August break day.

Drizzles,

Downpour.

Fore flavour of Ramadan feast.

 

"Today is the eighth day of August"

My mind murmured.

The dull demeanour of this August day

Peeped into my den,

I peeped.

 

A congregation of choristers

Converged,

Besieging my den door.

"Today is the eighth day of August in 2013 AD",

"Today marks your fiftieth year on earth",

"Today marks your golden jubilee on earth"

The choristers chorused.

 

"This jubilee is not golden"

My mind murmured.

I mused,

My mind meandered the maze of miseries.

 

Hordes of hapless citizens

Hamstrung by unholy homilies

Huddle in public places

Homeless,

Hungry,

Angry,

Hunted by self-anointed holy warriors,

Hunted by militants of all manners.

 

My mind moved to Biafra,

To other vanquished lands.

My mind gazed at the genocide.

This jubilee

Indeed is not golden

My mouth murmured.

 

 (This poem is in commemoration of the author's fiftieth birthday anniversary.  All Rights Reserved).

 

--

Chidi Anthony Opara is the Publisher of PublicInformationProjects

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