What is read in the news these days is enough make every well meaning Nigerian sad, much more make them afraid for their future, the future of their children and that of their fatherland.
There tends to be no sector of the country which is really doing well. The Nigerian Senate is plagued with its leaders faces charges for which many would have thrown in the towel. There are indications that the house is divided, even on the issue of the leadership of Nigeria by President Muhammadu Buhari. Trust is lost, truth is missing and we have no virtues anymore.
The media feasts on the ills that tends to multiply by the day, a miracle is urgently needed to save the nation.
These poets have reacted to the Nigerian situation, however, their poems cuts beyond Nigeria and Africa, to a world that seem to have lost its way. The madness is everywhere, death is not the worst we fear, we fear more what living has become.
The First Tooth.
The first tooth wasn’t lured by oil and salt
To breaking the seal of the gum
The first tooth was called up by milk.
…Milk in form of life itself.
The first tooth fell in a coup
For the want of oil, spice and wine
For the want of meat, red and white
For the want of caffeine and plastics.
And life went-on with the chewing of all these things
And the king tooth changed in color
That it’s become yellow, green, grey and black
And it’s all colors except its first
That in strength, it curves the cap of a cork
…and let the gas to the skies;
That it tears the bark of the earth and let the tears flow
And in height, it’s become a fang
And grow beyond the circles of the lips
To scare sweat and blood off pores
And thereafter, fall and lost in wingless dust
Now with this tooth, we can find the truth…
…the coup that led the first tooth to the roof
In the company of seven earthly angels.
