Prologue: Dialogue With Elite Friend

Friend: Chidi, why do you waste your time and energy to write poems only to post them on blogs, listservs, websites and social networking sites for people to read free?

Me: I aim to reach the highest number of people possible from diverse backgrounds with my poetry. For me, mass media like blogs, listservs, websites and social networking sites are best for my purpose.

Friend: nonsense, poetry is for those with elevated intellect, not for everybody.

Me: wrong notion. Opaque poetry written mainly for students to read and pass exams, which they usually forget about immediately after graduation, may fall into this category. Poetry is supposed to be one of the tools of socio-political and cultural mobilization.

Friend: I am still of the opinion that you should publish only on books and on literary review journals, if you want to be taken serious.

Me: (laughter) taken serious by who? The people whom I write for take me serious, judging by their reactions. Anyway, publishers of books and literary review journals are free to publish my poems if they choose to.

Friend: what do you gain from poetry since you are not making money from it?

Me: if my poetry helps to reform the society, I would have secured at least a footnote in history.

Friend: (chuckle) how do you think poetry can reform the society?

Me: (surprise) if the right messages are delivered in less opaque poetry to the highest number of people possible with diverse backgrounds, they will one day revolt against oppressors.

Friend: even blogs, listservs, websites and social networking sites do not reach everybody

Me: right, but they at least have wider reach.

Friend: how do you reach those who do not have access to the Internet?

Me: in future, I hope to print my poems on leaflets and also record them on audio/visual tapes and distribute them free in motor parks, market places and other such places where the masses are found.

Friend: (scornfully) all hail the poet!

Me: (smiling) time will tell.

Mundane Musing

Let me sit
On my mangled mat
And eat this meal,
This pot pourri
Of graceless cookery.
As I sink my dentition
Hungrily,
With anger
Into stale crumbs,
My mind
Wounded
Wandered the terrain,
Criss-crossed courses.
I mused
And meandered
Through the thicket
Into the mundane
Where maniacs
Mangle
Minds of mankind.

The Holy Sea Simmers

Paapa lies on the dust

Pushed by mutinous messengers.

Paapa’s soutane

Is soiled by slew of dirt,

The multitude gathers.

The holy sea

Simmers.

The Princes,

Attired for conclaves

Stand and watch,

Waiting for another conclave.

The holy sea

Simmers.

To the mutinous messengers

Paapa mutters;

“Touch not the anointed,

Do the prophet no harm”.

The multitude multiplies,

The mutinous messengers multiply,

The mutiny multiplies.

The holy sea

Simmers.

“Eko O Ni Baje”

The sea of humans

Search for crumbs.

Shallow singers sing;

“Eko o ni baje,

Eko o ni baje,

Eko o ni baje o o”.

Benighted bards sing along

In the sing song,

Emaciated morons

Move to the rhythm

Of the sing song.

Knighted nit wits laze

On the lawns of Lekki mansions,

Bantering with belles.

Lekki lies across the lagoon

Surrounded by sleaze.

The lagoon separates Lekki

From the many slums of Eko.

“Eko o ni baje,

Eko o ni baje,

Eko o ni baje o o”.

The song continues to echo.

Agony Of Akoka

The emptiness envelopes me.

No students striding to lectures,

No lecturers in lecture halls,

No student swagger.

Akoka is without Akokites,

Akoka is in agony.

I walk to the lagoon front

Passing scowling spirits

Of great teachers gone.

I sit under the coconut trees

Gazing at the lagoon laced with weeds,

Its waters in slow flow.

I watch children on canoes

Fishing in the lagoon waters.

Before me

The long bridge looms.

Behind me

The signpost signals “Welcome To UNILAG”.

Beside me

Shanties shelter the deprived of society.

Atop the coconut trees

Singing birds sew their shelters.

At nightfall the guest house

Gestures to me to come

And sip some sleep.

More Messiahs For Mankind

We are suffused in the serenity

Of the seashore,

We are suffused in the sea breeze,

In the soft sunshine

And sweet songs of seabirds.

We are drunk with decent desires,

The din is distant.

At dusk

We watch the daylight duck

And watch darkness draw near.

At night

We lay on the dune

Nodding at our nudity.

Our smiles seep into our souls,

Our serenades send us to sleep.

At dawn

We wake to watch daylight awake,

We wake

To watch the swans sail

Atop the serene sea waters.

In this purity

We will beget babies

Not burdened with original sin.

We will beget

More messiahs for mankind.

Nineteen Years Today

We sat

Facing the Registrar,

The banner beamed

"Chinyere weds Chidi".

We do,

We signed.

Today,

Third December,

Twenty eleven,

Nineteen years today

We still do.