MOTHER WILL BE WELL AGAIN
Yesterday, I wore agbada; today I’m in suit
Which one fit my black face?
Sunrise rises with indignation-
Beating me in my face to the wall
Crying the cry of my misery only fuels
the imbroglio of my nightmare
I’m a child of a Mother seeking a new mother
that will mother me into a warrior
I heard Mother had breast fed warriors
I heard She was dark, tall and strong:
Mother is alive-breathing hard to survive
I’m Her child chased to the cage to be caged
from Her tears
I’m the child seeking oases in my father’s land
I’m the child castrated by the mixed history of Mother
Listen!
Mother is bleeding heavily:
Yesterday;
Jack and Jim raped Mother at the bank of
Nile when the day was calmed
But the world was deaf when She cried
Mother was defiled by strangers
All I heard, all I know-
Mother was raped after Berlin’s meeting:
But, where is father?
Father should hold his arrow-
I mean his hunting arrow
That has brought down elephants and
tamed the howling mouth of hyenas
To avenge for Mother
Oh! Father was bedeviled-
I heard the tale:
Jack came to pray for father
Jim clothed father with suit and hangman’s rope
Father was tricked to England
He left his arrow at the feet of Kilimanjaro
I dream to become a man
With amplified voice:
I’m still a running-nose kid of Mother
Whenever I hear of Mandela; of Wiwa; of Senghor-
Of the scars that greeted their skins after their shout-outs
I fear to raise my voice to speak for Mother
Hope for Mother and me is jingling
And in the next wet season, I will talk:
I have elders of the great savannah-
Despising father’s dancing steps
Holding firm their flutes
Singing songs of the revolution
And let the whole ears hear that-
We have Voices and we have flutes:
In prison and in pains
They cling to their flutes
Singing, singing, singing
Singing for me that Mother is alive
And Mother will be well again
* * *
Abah, Linus Ajene was born in Ogo Oluwa L.G.A. of Oyo State and brought up in Idiri Okpoga in Okpokwu L.G.A. of Benue State where he has his biological root. He is a 400L student of Benue State University studying English/Education with the ambition of become an African Literature scholar as he progresses in life with time. He write poems and prose-fictions.
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TONY TOKUNBO ETEKA FERNANDEZ 