USA Africa Dialogue Series - COVID-19

COVID-19

Chukwu Okike! 

My hands are clean, ready for equity.

I have not denied my neighbors theirs.

And I have not taken that for which I had not worked. 

I have rejected foreign deities, not because you are jealous, 

But because they mean no good for me and mine. 

 

There is an enemy lurking in my hood. 

Said to come from Wuhan. 

I can't see it,  I can't  smell it,  and I can't  hear it coming.

Yet I see death in the microbe's invisible path. 

Strangling rich and poor, obscure and famous, weak and powerful. 

 

Ozurumba Nwanyioma!

I ask not for this anarchist to spare me and mine.

I ask for the intellect and resources to mitigate it. 

After all, that which is found in the sacred forest,

Was placed there by humans.

 

Ala ukwu of my kindred. 

In my backyard I saw the python taking a walk.

So I have come to the front door to have a talk.

The toad is prancing around in day light, 

Signaling the presence of death. 

 

I felt it in my throat and my joints.

The air around me tried to deny me of its sustaining energy.

Beke physicians recommended the ventilator. 

But Nnanna Nwaebo came to me.

And assured that there will be triumph.

 

I fear not death. 

He who comes visiting, must bring no harm.

And if he brings wahala, he must leave with hunched back.

Which one is my own with this wayward urchin?

What funny name is Corona for a Wuhan bastard?

 

Chukwu Okike

It's been 24 days since the visitor came to my abode.

Lolo Ihuaku is fine now,

Sashaying like Idemmili at the frontlines of healthcare again.

Hopefully for good, I and mine have wrestled Covid-19 to ala.

 

 

© Ugorji Okechukwu Ugorji, May 8, 2020.

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Dr. Ugorji Okechukwu Ugorji
Executive Director
African Writers Endowment, Inc.
(609) 851-9484

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