This country will make you and break you
By Joemario Umana
like *nung-essien that sits on our antenna pole crying for her young
I cry for myself I lost on the road of becoming
if only words do have power the way they say they do,
not like mine that is a watery sperm
what is speed of light compared to how fast
I will bring back boys lost like dews at the waking of
the sun
like Akan who on my way coming home from a place
everyone wants to set life ablaze with the holy ghost fire
watched him snake dance with fire all over him
later i heard the story was he wanted to become
and I sigh "this country will make you and break you still"
like Ekpin wounded for making bed on slithery tongues got missing
in a pile of pills and his body given to the ground as food
like Akachi who didn't drown
but became the water,
I wonder if indeed death is not the richest man in Babylon
like Aniekan not wanting to be called a lady became a sponge
sucking up his pain till he ran insane again "this country will
make you and break you still."
I watch all these happen again and again
as if i am chewing the cud
till something that ached the heart becomes something normal
like the sun waking up every morning and going to sleep every evening
Nung-Essien: a traditional African bird in Southern part of Nigeria