Loudthotz poets were invited by the Management of Beerhugz Cafe Ikeja City Mall Lagos, Nigeria on 1st October, 2016 to perform some of their best works about Nigeria. The most interesting poets in Nigeria did not dissappoint, they held the cafe at stand still till the cafe could not take it any more and told us to leave LOL!
Anyway if you have events and you want Loudthotz poets to perform in your event, please send a mail to loudthotz@gmail.com . . . we don't charge much just a couple of Hundred thousands!
ENJOY BELOW THE POEMS READ AT BEERHUGZ CAFE (it's a long read . . . and you may understand why they told us to leave LOL!)
V’S
OVER L
In 2001, Mama Oyo received an
invitation
It was not a wedding invite
No, nothing that fancy
It wasn’t an invitation to birth a
child either
You may begin to wonder
Oh, it must have been for a naming
ceremony
Well, it wasn’t
The invitation did not come wrapped in
an envelope
Neither did it arrive by post
It came speedily
Via electronic mail
Her son who was a politician
Received the invite
And told her it was time
Mama Oyo was elated
Though she had fought tirelessly
To have all her 6 children live in
Nigeria
Her daughter Fifekemi had left
And settled in Texas
She had 3 girls and declared her
childbearing
Days over
Mama Oyo was going to America
And she was beyond herself with joy
Her visa was granted with ease
Her son drove her to the airport
And her daughter picked her up
thereafter
Mama Oyo was a disciplinarian
Primary school principal for 30 years
She believed in the traditional ways of
Bringing up a child
Her ways were tried and tested
Her children, her pride, testify
After Mama Oyo had settled in
Fifekemi called Lola, Lily and Lucy
Aged 10,8 and 6
To meet Mama
“Hello Granny” was their greeting
“Tani Hello” her reply
Mama Oyo spent all of 3 weeks in the
land of liberty
Then packed her shock and
disappointment
And returned to her fatherland
With pride in the knowledge
That her values were intact
That her mother and her mother’s
Mother had passed down a treasure
A culture rich and profoundly embedded
In simple but germane gestures
That connote respect and
Balanced the delicate dance
Between freedom and limitation.
KEMIBON
///////////////////////////////////////
I AM A
SURVIVOR
East, West, North and South
Upon the twelve
Like Israel's twelve
I laid my threshold
Nurtured by Chief Funmilayo
Like Mary nurtured Jesus
East, West, North and South
My monumental self is sorted
I bear my cultured self
In Ivories and Bronze
Beads sculptured into male and female
I made me a home
For excavators
East, West, North and South
I am a rainbow of reflex sparkles
My gifts made me the giant
Steep hills and valleys
Rocky mountains and mangroves
These bear my golden eggs
Adorned in garments of
Coal, iron, zinc and oil
East, West, North and South
In green and white
I bear my colours
Making eagle the crown
On my horns
My surplus
Feed stomachs and unity
Ekpo and Akpe my ruling agents
Thought the white governance
Sharo showcased my tenacity and womanhood
East, West, North and South
Varied drums and wooden clappers
Calls up my steps
In rainbow wears
From Ishan Stilt
To Tiv Ajo and Icough
Ekiti heavy head masks
Thus brandishing Ubakala
A change agent
While Boorii relays
My complete melody
East, West, North and South
I am a rainbow of reflex sparkles
My call is laud
It makes the world quake
My testimonial has no mate
I have survived
And will still survive
Because I am a survivor.
CHRIS '
N' JOHN
///////////////////////////////////////
NIGERIA: DESTINY’S CALL
Where the
sun shines
There
too, shadow reclines
A time to
whine, a time to wine
For
Nigeria’s high destiny
To
reclaim our dreams
To
re-channel our streams
Of the
geography of geniuses
Cast of
the slough of cheap disguises
Where the
seeds grow
There
too, weeds prowl
A time to
cry, a time to try
For
Nigeria’s higher purpose
To
restore merit
To
rethink skewed social credit
Heal,
national bad habit with integrity
Disband,
the tribal cult of mediocrity
Where
grotesque darkness echoes
There
too, unconquered sun’s ethos
A time to
obey, this time, today
Nigeria’s
highest moral vision calls
To weld
our numbers as majesty of sword and wealth
To weave
our differences as tapestry of chord and health
And craft
a tomorrow
Renewed,
robust, resilient and never shallow
Arise, O
compatriots, Nigeria’s call obey
Arise, O
patriots. Today
To shun
the stale tale of tribe
One
nationhood we subscribe
Curb the
irrational religious exuberance
Great
lofty heights attain with endurance
Labour
with cumulative epiphanies
And birth
new incarnation
Of one
nation bound in freedom, peace and unity.
@MICHAEL ACHILE UMAMEH
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
ONCE
UPON A LIFE
Born with a wooden spoon
I was certain that I would reach the
moon
And beyond
In this life time
I lived everyday growing in love
And sowing the seeds of same
Tough like growing sesame
But I stuck to the game
I am determined to be ahead of the game
In this life time
I have played for fame
Now only I, am here to take the blame
Even a lame man will not accept such
blame
Jide had warned
But who was he to call the shots
In reality he had proven to be better
than the lot
In this life time
In this same time and clime did we hear
of missing billions
The other day it was a case of a stolen
phone
The gash to the left of his head did
not stop the boy
From landing in jail
At about the same time as his
A leader had cornered
Some billions
All we saw were headlines and arguments
in the media
We are quick to conclude and judge
Even at 56 years of age
We have not been able to surpass the
sage
Many years after, we are stuck with
ideologies that was passed down by the sage
Another case is that of pot calling
kettle black
Most of them have chosen to keep us in
the “dark”
Making sure we have nothing to eat
Except a feast and excess supply of booze
‘Tis not time for human breakaway
But there should be a way somehow
A way to jolt us back to life and help
us get a good go at 56
It will be fun, it will be sweat, it
will be fight
Then, it will need a complete
overhauling of our psyche
Then I can come back and tell the tale
of “Once Upon A Life.
ILUPEJU
/////////////////////////////////////
1.WE THE PEOPLE
1960!
Raindrums
on our parade ground
danced us
all the way to the villa
with
rainbow pens
to sign
our independence
WE THE
PEOPLE
WE drew
up his hands
Zik ,
Awooo, Tafa
mounted up
on the podium of hope
their
statue still standing
WE the
people!
'67- '70
The
Eagle’s Leftwing is fighting her right wing
3 million
starved a million killed
The
bitter taste of death stronger than the cola
Made us
drop our arms and clubs
We the
people!
1993
En masse
we are here
On a
Tribe less queue WE stood
To
stamp our hand on the twelfth of June
But
Kashimawo we all said, lets patiently watch
This we
did until they jerked away our boxlike heart
It kept
beating until we heard the announcement
And
then we died
Our
democratic candle
Totally
snuffed off
WE THE
PEOPLE
1999
A hero is
bred
Out of
the dungeons of death
The
general sent him on a king’s errand
After his
nose scented a coup,
To couple
with doom
But fate
came on a stroll
And
wrongly delivered letters
Death to
the general
Life to
the condemned
So out
again we trooped gyrating what Mama gave us
Singing
“He has given us victory, WE will lift Him higher”
We the
people!
We the
people
Now its
our turn
To etch
names in the national history
Like
small gods our let there BE
Became!
Unlike
the commandments
From the
supreme
This one
was made
For WE
the people
By we the
people
2012
We
marched shoeless
To occupy
again our land from the crude bunker
Mathematician
who miscalculated
George
orwell’s words
All
animals are equal
And hiked
up the common oil
Here we
met with an open bracket of resilience
But
marched on Machiavelli style
Stoutly
meeting our death
But we
knew we could
When we
got the result for our trial
The hike
went down, close bracket
Yes we can
WE THE
PEOPLE!
2014
Silent
night, unholy night
Along
came the devil
Blood
starved minion
Sucked
buni yadi out of our boys
And
fished out girls like sardines
To be
carted away to neverland
A forest
of ghosting
Sambisa
talk to me
Who do we
tell to bring back our girls
Are the
people listening?
2015
Here we
are, WE THE PEOPLE
Out with
brooms
To sweep
away the ills past
But with
wands of old
So the
modified emperor
Can hop a
ride to the rock top
a viila
painted in secrets of color
no not
the house called white
we the
people claim this one victory
yes
changed we are
now
our voice
being the voice of God
must
be heard
we will
not leave the books we wrote unguarded
so you
can change the words to suit you
because
that’s the only power that we the people have
and now
we need it to sing again
the songs
we will chorus titled
2019!.
2. THE
NATIONAL SIN
There is
a new commander in town
And he’s
written more commandments for our pleasure
Article
99,subsection 101b,
Corruption,
a national sin!
Anyone
found guilty:
“His name
shall be written with blood ink
No
monument shall be erected in his honor
His grave
shall not have an epitaph
Neither
should a requiem be sung on his funeral’
Our
leader’s ear will tingle
When he
hears we are all guilty
Of his
national sin
His ear
waxed blocked because
We even
mentioned his name
As guilty
of this among amongst several others
That we
term national sin
“The man
eaters
Don’t
they call you brother sir?
National
sin!
Cello
taping together a part of the house
That
wants to break away
National
sin
When you
engrave the descendants of the past
As the
parent of the future
with
national honors”
National
sin!
Now
declare every day a Sabbath
So that
Its Lord can cleanse us both
Of our
National sins.
3. NEVER LAND
Under the
Iroko tree
As always
we cracked nuts of lore
Never a
heart to desert our land
But go we
did, as shackles never imagined
Clamped
our souls and body
To a
colored spirit
For a sin
we know not.
Our skin
as associated with all things bad
We Never
produce them a dirty thought
On our
journey to destiny, Never could we afford a backward look home
Lest you
risk a mortar in your mortal body
And like
our kin, become a pillar of waste
Still we
trudge, to a land desolate
Which by
our hands were made fruitful
Though we
Never had a taste of our labor
Our
mouths doubly locked from eatingand speaking out
Against
our kinfolks the double agents
Never
were we given a chance to defend our strength
Like roosters
whose crows were snuffed before sunrise
We swore
Never to let go,
our tales
by the baobab tree.
4. SONG OF THE NIGER
A lush
green field of the savannah
Neighbors
the desert of ceaseless water
in the
plateau where my warm heart
is heated
by the northern sun
and the
cheeriness of the lagoon
Ignoring
these, I hop
Into the
city of bright lights
When
highway holes port me off the lane
And the
water supply ratio
Competes
with electricity supply
How do I
not gnash my tooth?
Until the
cold of the frozen lands
Shattered
my tooth in icy pain
And
taught me the joy of misery
That
cuddles one in loneliness
Now with
all boldness I say
Home
is where the heart is
Where
love struggles with comfort and wins
A prayer
I cite
For you
my Nigeria
That you
be made a bed of calmness
That
soothes away all my worries
So i may
seek not solace
In alien
arms abroad.
LOLADE AJAYI
LOUDTHOTZ
POET
/////////////////////////////////////////////////
HUNGER
Enough about Africa,
We have spoken of her beauty
too many times as it is,
We’ve overlooked our eyes
To this exquisiteness.
Nigeria too,
on her children
Who refuse to be selfless
Yet their hungry arms
Claw at their leaders’ mouth.
It wasn’t always like this
You know,
These leaders
looked noble and kind
With an air of wisdom and culture.
They worked together
And “left” together
They shook hands
And were friends
Nigeria was proud of them
Her people were happy
Ever hopeful
Even peaceful
Not starved
Strong
This is not a bed time story
Wake up!
Lest strife take you
As syphilis would
Wake up!
Lest you take strife
Like a pollen allergy
Whence it came,
You do not know
We do not need
To put our pained thoughts
On others
We can care,
Caution,
And move on,
They say,
But there is no
One way to life.
There are times ,
We,
Need to take that special
Time out,
To help,
Cheer,
And change
Another’s situation
There are times
We
Need to ignore
A person completely
Though thin limbs
And large fierce eyes
Stare at us for service
There are times
We
Shouldn’t ignore the reasons
Why a man
In a bus snaps
At the “conductor”
We
Could
Walk past a family
Seeking any kind of water
To another
seeking health
We
Could
Run to hold
The child who pukes
Due to his consumption
of bad food
Let’s live
As Ghandi
Or Paul Revere
Maybe Mary Slessor
She did protect children
After all
As we wait patiently
For Kaptain Africa
If he would have us
September 2016
ABIOLA
BONUOLA
////////////////////////////////////
NIGERIA,
WHAT HAVE YOU BECOME?
Nigeria, Nigeria, Once a warriors land
Reduced to nothing more than bribery
and corruption
Crimes after Crimes Bombs after bombs
What has my country Nigeria become?
Crude oil as a blessing, Coal as well
Even the cocoa, sugarcane and avocado
pear
But alas we misused these blessing and
so
God said, “I need some people to help
grow this Nation”
We are those people, the youths of this
nation
We stand tall and reject all forms of
corruption
We believe in Nigeria and we stand tall
Because we have the glory, the power
and the mercy of God
So once again I have to address the
Nigerians that think our
country is a mess
Despair not at what we have become
But rather, come and let us join hands
and hearts
To forge the vision we want to be
Together we can make it, make Nigeria
become
One nation, one country with freedom
and God
Together we can rewrite our future
again
Employing wills of steel and making
choices that heal
For what ever we have become, only us
can
un-become
ATEGZ
AND ETTA OKOR © 2016
//////////////////////////////////////////////
FOR
ALL THERE IS
I am not the place named by the journal
keeping Flora
This water kissing this white sand on
this beach
Also kissed the feet of the Portuguese
When they came bearing salt and mirror
as gifts to the King at Badagry
Just so they won’t make him angry
Before the days of Flora shaw
Soon as they set foot to this shore
The Portuguese unloaded their goods and
also their expectations
This beautiful Sun dried up the wetness
of their feet
This Sun coloured their whiteness with
beautiful tans
Painted them brown with crayon and rays
That Sun wearing splendor in full
regalia
Like the Buba and Agbada
Overflowing even the nails of the
native Chief
That sun rising from the hills of Udi
And setting into the rocks of Abeokuta
I am not that place imagined on the
comfort of a creaking bed
On which Flora lay on Lugard
After a moment of exhausted tension
I am Jaja
Rising from servitude to become the
occupation opposing King of Opobo
I am the restive Binin soldiers
resisting the foreign Queen and her bands
Gathered around the Kingdom to Usurp
Oba Overanwen
No I am not this depravity running amok
like a madman on fire
I am not daughters long taken from home
to score cheap points
Only coming home on the pages of papers
I am not the internally displaced
squalid
Acclimatizing for hell’s weather
I am
The art of the kingdom of Ife lying on
the south western stretch of the Niger River
I am
The Iron castings of the Nok of the
Niger Delta
I am
The bronze wrought of Igbo ukwu
boasting of reach long enough to put Onitsha on the market
map
I am the famed sculptures of the Binin
Empire
Making bronze gods taken to British
museums in the cover of night
Wipe your tears child of my loins
And weep not for sunken breasts
In no time these breasts shall suckle
again the children of my crevice
I am not a man with an end
Here I am
For all there is
And yet to come.
CHUKWUEMEKA
DEUS NJOKU
/////////////////////////////////////////
NATIVES
OF TROUBLE
“Immensi,
Tremmore, Oceani, who will teach my children Archimedes?”
Hell is
place we once called home,
Where now
the earth is dried up
And her
womb would yield no crop
Because
the river died of thirst.
The
children and the suckling swoon
In the
street of the desolate city
No corn,
no wine;
Their
mothers’ breast, a famished well,
A
desiccated winepress.
Yes,
The
suckling deprived of mother’s breast
Nib on
their thumbs,
hoping
that the rock cries milk.
O! Who
will rob the moon of her silk
To clothe
this babies,
Born into
a war so cold?
What
words will warm wives
Now left
with no husbands to have and hold?
When it
leaks through the roofs of their thatched houses
Who will
save their future from drowning in the past?
Sometimes
we hear sweet stories of ice cream,
Those
eaten by children of strangers;
For us it
is sacrilege to dream.
We live a
life of pi and only hope in the god of small things
To give
the last orders
For too
long, we have plied the ghost road,
caressed
daily by sacred hunger.
We fled
home with dearth and death in our possession,
And some
still long to rob us of our nothingness,
Perhaps
from those who have nothing,
Much more
will be taken.
Humanity
is cruel and cold,
But our
coldness won’t freeze the sun.
Therefore,
from the benevolence
Of the
butcher,
The
brewer,
The baker;
Give us
this day our dinner.
Tax gods
and let Ceasers pay their tithes.
O how
long? I ask how long?
How long
shall the women and children
Eat of
the crumbs that fall to the dogs?
They say
the war is ending,
but to
every end a new beginning.
Can’t you
see that this hunger in our eyes
Is a new
war coming?
And you
might ask who we are,
It’s
simple, you need not look too Far.
For we
are the casualties from Gwosa,
The
living victims buried in some camp
With no
lamp,
There in
Taraba.
We are
the forgotten ones, marooned in Gombe and Yobe,
There
where compatriots have failed to arise,
For they
can’t afford rice,
And
Nigeria’s call they have refused to obey.
And tomorrow when
the war is brought to your door,
They will
say we are this and we are that;
But
please bear this in your heart,
That we
do not seek to toe some lecherous father’s path,
We are
just natives of trouble,
Seeking a
good name for bad sleep.
SOONEST NATHANIEL
Loudthotz
(@Bheerhugz
2016)
////////////////////////////////////////////////
THE WOMEN I LOVED
There was
one, a black woman
who
always sat like a man,
her legs
wide open without fear
for what
the prying world would see.
and she
would often say:
“Let them
bear witness
that this
lady is endowed
with an
elephant-size testicle!”
There was
another,
a weaver
of baskets in Cameroon.
For grass
she used boys’ pubic hairs,
and for
rush the thicket of their eyelashes.
The
twines of her wicker baskets
were
men’s beards and mustaches.
She
always stored in her womb,
beer,
grains and the skulls of decapitated dreams.
The
other, my father’s wife
said the
sentences of her life
kept
missing their periods,
because a
lecher suckled at her nipples
before
she grew breasts.
She would
often sit me on her thighs
and
stare me gently into my eyes,
and she
would say: “Blind men see the best,
It
doesn’t take a penis to impregnate a woman.”
There was
another, a full Indian.
She knew
the rope trick,
could
turn water into wine,
and like
a true daughter of Babel,
believed
in breaking the rules.
The year
the rice crop failed in my homeland,
she wove
her webs of silk and spurned her honey traps;
I left my
locks on her laps, and ate it whole with milk.
The
prophet’s whore always faked her orgasm.
She
wouldn’t suckle her son on her breasts,
she
wouldn’t let her fawns fall;
she
wanted them ever firm, ready to heed the swinger’s call.
But
that which the toddler’s tongue didn’t do, time did.
Its hands
fondled her wilt,
and the
swinger, her milkman,
sought
fresh udders in Sarajevo.
Then I
turned to my sister,
but
she had no breasts.
And there
was nothing I could do
on the
day she was spoken of
and given
to a man who wears only skirts.
I loved
aunty too,
but she
never saw any pride in pissing up walls.
So these
days I have learnt to look elsewhere,
and there
forever to live
with the
scars of light.
SOONEST NATHANIEL
Loudthotz
(@Bheerhugz
2016)
///////////////////////////////////////////
SONG OF THE NIGER
A
lush green field of the savannah
Neighbors
the desert of ceaseless water
in the
plateau where my warm heart
is heated
by the northern sun
and the
cheeriness of the lagoon
Ignoring
these, I hop
Into the
city of bright lights
When
highway holes port me off the lane
And the
water supply ratio
Competes
with electricity supply
How do I
not gnash my tooth?
Until the
cold of the frozen lands
Shattered
my tooth in icy pain
And
taught me the joy of misery
That
cuddles one in loneliness
Now with
all boldness I say
Home
is where the heart is
Where
love struggles with comfort and wins
A prayer
I cite
For you
my Nigeria
That you
be made a bed of calmness
That
soothes away all my worries
So i may
seek not solace
In alien
arms abroad.
LOLADE AJAYI
LOUDTHOTZ
POET
© 2016
///////////////////////////
DANIEL
Who's da
man
That
comes around
To turn
around
Our woes
and foes?
Refrain
Daniel's
da man
That's
got da wit
Daniel's
the man
That'll
fix da bit!
Who's da
man
That
takes da lead
To take
da lid
Off our
eyes?
Who's da
man
That
shows our hands
The land
to till
Our tum
to fill
Who's da
man
That
drags da net
To rid da
street
Of reeds
and weeds?
Who's da
man
That
schools my man
To be a
man
And man
his life?
When
Whence
Comes
Daniel?
For
Daniel's da man
That's
got da wit
Daniel's
da man
That'll
fix da bit!
FREDRICK DARE
LOUDTHOTZ
POET
© 2016
/////////////////////////////////////
RISKY
THIS IS
WHAT WE BLEED FOR?
SHED
TEARS FOR?
TO RUN
AROUND IN CIRCLES AND HOOPS
JUST TO
KEEP RUNNING AROUND IN CIRCLES AND HOOPS?
MTCHEEEEEEEEEWWWW!!!
ME DON
TIRE JOR, BABA BRING BACKS OUR GIRLS FALAFALA
BRING
BACK THE WAR
LIKE YOU
DID BEFORE
YES THE
WAR AGAINST INDISCIPLINE BACK4 IN ’85 NO, 84
WHEN THE
LONG, HUGE HANDS OF HISTORY SANDWICHED YOUR SHORT TENURE RIGHT SMACK INBETWEEN
THE ONE WHO’S NAME WE REMEMBER RYHMES WITH CASSAVA FLAKES AND OH THAT OTHER
MAIGIDA WE USED TO CALL MARADONNA
INTERESTING
HOW YOU MADE IT CRYSTAL CLEAR THAT YOU ARE THE FIRST GRANDFATHER TO
BECOME NOBODY’S FATHER PLEASER
YA DROVE
THE POINT HOME WHEN YA ORDERED THE TERMINATION OF THE 9.3 BILLION NAIRA
PIPELINE SECURITY CONTRACT AWARDED TO ALA DEM SCATTER FILTER
KNOW YE
NOT BRETHREN THAT THE LAW HAS DOMINION OVER A MAN FOR AS LONG AS HE LIVES?
THIS IS
WHAT THE GOOD BOOK SAYS IN ROMANS CHAPTER 7 VERSE 1
SO NOW
THAT CHANGE HAS COME
IT’S NO
LONGER FUN AND GAMES ANYMORE
DROP YOUR
JAWS Y’ALL
EXPERIENCE
THE GRAND FINALE OF BOX OFFICE BLOCKBUSTERS LIKE, ‘’CORRUPTION CRIMES’’ AND
‘’THE ABOLISION OF THE IMMUNITY CLAUSE’’
PAUSE
WHY DO
YOU SCOFF NOW THAT CHANGE HAS COME
MAKE YOU
DEY DIA DEY YIMU
NO BI ME
WIT YOU BIN BUY KEROSENE FOR A THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED PER GALLON ON THE EVE OF
REDEMPTION WHEN WE HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO MAKE SOME PECULIAR POCKETS PLUMS?
OH I
DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU
BUT I’M
DONE BEING DUMB
GO AHEAD
AND CALL IT NAIVETY
FLING
FACTS AND FIGURES IN MY FACE MAKING THIS MISSION LOOK LIKE AN IMPOSSIBILITY
BROTHER I
UNDERSTAND THE ECHOES OF YOUR GLOOM
SISTER I
USED TO LIVE IN THIS EXACT SAME ROOM
BUT NOT
ANYMORE… NOT ANYMORE
I’M NOT
ALONE
WHEN
CHANGE CAME, IT UNVIELED A LEGION
LOOK
AROUND YOU, TELL ME YOU DO NOT SEE THIS LEGION OF CHANGE AGENTS
ORDINARY
PEOPLE FROM EVERY TRIBE AND EVERY CREED
FROM ALL
WALKS OF LIFE
PREPARED
TO SWALLOW THEIR PRIDE AND PUT ASIDE THEIR DIFFERENCES
IN ORDER
TO RE-IGNITE THE FIERCE FIRE FROM DEEP WITHIN
THE TYPE
THAT MAKES AN ORDINARY MAN WANNA DO EXTRAORDINARY THINGS
HOLD OUT
YOUR SMARTPHONES AND TAP THE RECORD BUTTON
CONTRARY
TO POPULAR OPINION, IT’S ABOUT TO BE REVOLUTIONARY
WE
‘BOUT TO RE-WRITE HISTORY AND RESTORE A NATION THAT WAS ONCE KNOWN AS THE
GIAINT IN THE SUN
WA JO MA
YA BO BARO
WA JO MA
YA BO BARO
COME LET
US MOVE FORWARD TOGETHER
IT’S
GOING TO TAKE EVERYTHING WE’VE GOT BUT BY GOD WE’VE GOT EVERYTHING IT TAKES
AGBAJOWO
NIKAN NI OLE SE O
EJEKA SO
OWO PO KA LE FI IMO S’OKAN
NOW THAT
CHANGE HAS COME
THIS!!!
IS WHAT I HAVE BECOME
WOME UYEYE
LOUDTHOTZ POET
© 2016
EXPLANATION
OF NON-ENGLISH WORDS USED:
*Baba* is
a Nigerian word used for a very elderly man.
*Falafala*
is a hausa word that means ‘’in abundance’’
*Maigida*
is a hausa word that means young man/Mister
*Wa jo ma
ya bo baro* is an Isoko phrase that means, ‘’come let us move forward
together’’
*Agbajowo
nikan ni ole se oo* is a yoruba phrase that means, ‘’ united we can make it
happen’’
*Ejeka so
owo po ka fi imo s’ okan* is a Yoruba phrase that means, ‘’let us pool all
resources available and reason in wisdom together in one direction as a
singular unit”
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////
MY
COUNTRY IS WITHIN
Eleanor
Roosevelt once said
No one
can make you feel inferior
Without
your consent
Let me
not sound patriotic
For
patronizing the critics
Makes
them fuel the fire
That
brings in its wake
The Greek
gift
Within
the mind the truth is told
Stand tall
Walk the
talk of good stewardship
For the
battle is within
A trust
once broken
If rebuilt
May take
another generation to bridge
That
plate filled with vile portions
Of racism
in the name of tribalism
That have
been passed down
Eat no
more
I can
only change the man
Looking
back at me
And make
him my better self
My
country is within to fix
Let the
light of;
Love
Humility
Consideration
Honour
Sincerity
Hope
Shine
within
IFEANYI OKWOSHA
September
2016
//////////////////////////////
BEYOND BEAUTY
I whewed
unto myself
I whewed
unto who cares to listen
I
screeched unto them
I warbled
unto all
She is a
beauty to behold
But
beyond beauty
My dear
country is suffering
She is
suffering from . . . megalomania
My
expected willing whee
Became my
unexpected unwilling wheel
To which
I wee unwillingly
At the
sight of the whittle
Whence
forth is my whet to Whelm
My
willingness to willingly will my will
To my
beauty beholding beyond beauty
My dear
country is
She is .
. . stealthy coquettish.
ALAYANDE STEPHEN .T
LOUDTHOTZ POET
2016
//////////////////////////////////////
PASS ME A BEER
What is
the state of the Nation?
Can
anyone give an explanation
For our
current situation?
Well for
today lets not debate
On
whether or not our Nation is great
Nor
should there be a debate
On
whether or not to celebrate
56 years
ago there was elation
As we ...
became one Nation
So chop
cake, eat rice and drink wine
Relax…our
Nation would be fine
Caterpillar
and butterfly no be mate
So why
all the complaints
One day
the caterpillar would fly
But the
process of #Change must go by
We must
change scenes on Life’s stage
So put
your fears in a cage
And plan
for the blank page
Yes! The
future is in our hands
As we
continuously dance on the sands
The
labour of our heroes
Shall not
amount to zero
We stand
at victory’s gate
Let’s
celebrate
Let’s
jubilate
Nigeria
is great
We claim
it by faith
Now pass
me that beer
Cheers!!!
ERHIO
(Loudthotz @Bheerhugz)
//////////////////////////////////////
HERE
Here,
Princes
fast
Not out
of veneration to God
But
Privation
Faring
like outcasts in Eden
Tilling
rocks with iron sinews
In the
fruitless toil
To grease
their stomach walls,
Yet they
gawk on as their hustled harvests
And
God-given treasures
Vanish
into ghostly pockets
Like
savings in a leaking bag
Indigence
and destitution
Devours
flesh like gangrene
The
scions of the basket
Are
bereaved by starvation.
Everyday
involuntary dances ensue
Fashioned
by melancholy’s song
When we
lose another cadaver to the worms
So that
Kwashiorkor and malnutrition
Can
conspire on international TV
To
re-mould our children
Into
identical twins of HIV.
Knees and
foreheads kiss
And
caress threadbare mats endlessly
Hands
flail skywards ceaselessly
Cowries
and bones clatter constantly
Mumbling
their own mumbo-jumbos
Deities
are deliberated with daggers drawn
But all
unite in supplication
Beauty
for ashes, the chorus
Of our
mutual, undying song.
AN N. AMOS.
//////////////////////////////////
THE NATIONAL SIN
There
is a new commander in town
And he’s
written more commandments for our pleasure
Article
99,subsection 101b,
Corruption,
a national sin!
Anyone
found guilty:
“His name
shall be written with blood ink
No
monument shall be erected in his honor
His grave
shall not have an epitaph
Neither
should a requiem be sung on his funeral’
Our
leader’s ear will tingle
When he
hears we are all guilty
Of his
national sin
His ear
waxed blocked because
We even
mentioned his name
As guilty
of this among amongst several others
That we
term national sin
“The man
eaters
Don’t
they call you brother sir?
National
sin!
Cello
taping together a part of the house
That
wants to break away
National
sin
When you
engrave the descendants of the past
As the
parent of the future
with
national honors”
National
sin!
Now
declare every day a Sabbath
So that
Its Lord can cleanse us both
Of our
National sins.
LOLADE AJAYI
///////////////////////////////
SILHOUETTE
The day
passes
And this
vista don’t turn classic.
Each
scene my eye catches
Strikes
a loud note on my mind’s string
Whispers
of familiar strangers
In
consummate converse fill my chambers.
Born on
the wings of resonance,
Voices
inviolably- euphonious in concert
Painting
pictures with wands of emotion,
Ineffable
memoir for oils and colours
My head
in times as pallet, my heart
Rest on
God tripod for canvas.
I hear
charming pictures of landscape exist
But
silhouette is all I see.
Shall I
liken it to the blaring of horns?
Chirping
of birds or ringing of gongs.
Thou has
let me no choice,
Less to
think brief of this sweet vista
Whose
pulchritude flirt the glorious morning sun?
How my
eyes longed, yet beheld only glimpse of thy silhouette.
FABIAN MCROB UGBECHIE
