We Cry For Peace Read online

  Jordan Davis and Renisha McBride.

  Addressed to your psyche,

  You can hear the murdered entreat:

  “Don’t allow another name to join

  A homicide report sheet.

  Don’t allow another name to join

  A homicide report sheet.”

  Addressed to your psyche,

  the compositions

  I’ve written are parts of a bulletin,

  The passages transmit

  To our terra firma’s retina.

  Addressed to your psyche,

  My protest wants life

  To evict the combustive

  And discriminative.

  If armed with you,

  Lawfulness will live

  .

  EASE OF PEACE

  by Abegunde Sunday Olaoluwa

  What is peace?

  Peace is not violence’s death

  Or a state of no danger

  It’s about the Prince of Peace’s presence

  With us in storms we felt

  Secured are we in His hands

  What is peace?

  Peace is a joy of hope

  A heart rejoicing in God

  Peace is the caged bird’s hope

  Rehearsing songs for its day of freedom

  What is peace?

  Ask David of Absalom’s coup

  Or of Saul’s wave of spears

  The Lord is good

  A stronghold in day of despair

  We cry for peace

  ‘Cause our land is breaking apart

  Completely into pieces

  From the caress of violence

  Aren’t we pissed?

  Now, O’ Prince of peace

  We pray your presence

  In our lives and nation

  For in this flow of troubles

  You are our peace

  THE CLOSING STAGE

  by Adebesin Ibraheem Adekunle

  I’m afraid the end-time is near

  See the maddening impunity of depraved heads

  The mediocre misfit manning our mace –

  The perfidious president, the gluttonous governors,

  The crooked councillors, the law-breaker law-makers:

  All self-seeking merchants of loot!

  See the opportunistic stratocrats

  Patriotically riding on the civilians’ profligacy

  I’m afraid the end-time is near

  See the jagged judges jailing Job than Judas

  See the lethal lawyers lustring lies for luscious gains

  See the many masked mass murdering extremists

  Bearing lunatic loathing for western ways

  And shelling to shards with gory thirst

  See the many aggrieved Deltan bands

  The vengeful victims of our insensate state

  Making a Milch cow of abducted fellows

  Seized for soiling the Deltan soil

  I’m afraid the end time is near

  See the many blood-thirsty tribal fanatics

  Ruining prized riches and priceless souls

  See the many unwaged, disenchanted youths

  Willing tools in the hands of pseudo patriots

  Fuelling feuds among the diverse peoples

  See dismembered bodies strewn on bloody streets

  I’m afraid the end-time is near

  See the ubiquitous, unceasing crunch

  Wrecking the mighty and the limp nations

  See once potent currencies now growing irreversibly limp

  See corporations crashing for dearth of cash

  See nations mourning mass hunger-induced deaths

  I’m afraid the end-time is near

  See religion now commonly commercialized

  See homily now bereft of the customary pious creed

  See Morality talk murdered for prosperity greed

  See religion now spawning satanic breeds –

  Witchery, Wizardry, Illuminatism, Voodooism, Vampirism…

  See occult authority prevailing in the world

  See daemons ruling God’s houses in saintly guise

  I’m afraid the end-time is near

  Education now perverts than edifies

  See the erudite now very sorrily corrupt

  See schools now breeding grounds for sordid socialization

  What killed the founding philosophy

  PEACE CALL

  by Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha

  What is the result of dishonesty?

  What is the price of selfishness?

  What is the state of a loveless society?

  You don't fight for peace,

  You dialogue

  And negotiate for peace.

  We tore peace

  And unity into pieces

  The very day we became materialistic

  And self-centered.

  Cries cannot solve our problem

  We are only reaping the harvest

  Of the seeds we planted.

  For us to have peace

  A true and lasting one

  We must positively transform

  Our lives from inside out.

  We need peace not pieces

  We can have it

  If only we can truly love one another.

  VISUALIZE

  by Melisha Murray

  You never take the time

  To visualize

  The pain your victims

  Feel

  Take a minute;

  Visualize

  Your mother’s cervix

  Being beaten like a piñata

  Because some guy

  Craves

  The candy

  She has inside.

  Visualize

  Your father

  Hurling his rod of correction

  Inside your innocence,

  Eating away

  At his own flesh and blood.

   Visualize,

  Strange hands

  Gripping neck,

  Gripping breasts,

  Gripping chest,

  As you grip

  The last strand of sanity

  You have left.

  Feel unwanted skins

  Against skin,

  Tearing your skin,

  To force their way in

  Feel that knot

  In your throat

  As you get gripped by fear

  Then visualize yourself

  Banishing the thoughts

  Of raping again.

  IF HE MOUNTS THE STAGE AGAIN…

  By Mipo Isaac

  If he mounts the stage again

  We’ll be glad to see him for thirty minutes

  Yes, thirty minutes out of a 4-year term,

  Thirty minutes out of 2, 102, 400 minutes in 1460 days

  If he mounts the stage again

  With his alluring smiles;

  To say “HI”s and tell his usual lies

  If he mounts the stage again

  Alighting from his limousine

  To inspect our bad roads

  And reaffirm;

  “The ministry is on top of the matter”

  If he mounts the stage again

  Clothed in pricey outlandish garment,

  Embellished with golden accessories;

  To present next year’s well-allocated budget

  If he mounts the stage again

  On arrival from a German hospital

  To commission our newly completed,

  Well-equipped community health centre

  If he mounts the stage again

  In company of ten fierce bodyguards,

  To guarantee us 100 percent security

  If he mounts the stage again

  To introduce 20 obsessed strangers;

  As our newly appointed councillors

  And our representatives at the senate

  If he mounts the stage again,

  Like the prophets of Baal

  Calling down fire while it is raining
;

  Prophesying a bright future in our dark community

  Hmmm……

  If he mounts the stage again,

  Shall we with empty stomach and heavy heart

  Stand on aching skeletal legs

  Under the scourging influence of our depleted environ?

  If he mounts the stage again

  Shall we shriek “Amen” “Amen” to his whoppers?

  Or we’ll chant “Oh yes”, “Oh yes” to his flattering?

  If he mounts the stage again

  Shall we praise him with our claps?

  And wave high our colourful placards?

  If he mounts the stage again

  Shall we grip our neighbour by the arm?

  And say “Hurray, our prayers are answered”

  If he mounts the stage again,

  We’ll rejoice, gloat and wallow in our victory;

  Beginning with 7 days marathon fasting and prayers

  Listen!

  Again, I call for your attention.

  Listen! Listen! Listen!

  Here is a verdict of an angry Nigerian

  Just like you

  If he mounts the stage again,

  I suggest we stone him to death

  Or for leniency sake;

  Hang him on a tree, just for four days

  If he mounts the stage again,

  I’ll prefer we hire a perfect sniper

  To do his jobs from a safe hide out

  If he mounts the stage again

  I suggest we bid for the men of the night;

  To welcome him at his estate gate

  At least his hungry neighbour would be fed “akara”

  If he mounts the stage again

  Before he descends from the stage;

  We should go, deflate his limousine’s tires

  Shatter his 21 inches sun proof windscreen

  Smash the 4 tinted glasses of his caravan.

  If he mounts the stage again

  Yes! Just as you think,

  These are not too extreme

  No, not for all we’ve been through.

  If he mounts the stage again

  Shall we? Can we? Should we?

  Yes you can, But as for me and my pen

  We’ll get to partner with a notepad

  You ask, “what for?!”

  Well, to write another non-political poem

  Just like this

  THE CRACKER:

  By Lennée Reid

 

  On the banks of the muddy Mississippi

  A mother wakes to screams

  Runs to a tree

  Drops to her knees

  When she sees

  Strange fruit hanging

  How could that be?

  The seed grew in her own body

  She vowed that day

  Somehow some way

  Come bliss or anguish

  She would make that cracker pay

  The poem below is an ode to terrorist who abducted Chibok girls in Nigeria on 14th April, 2014 which did

  Bring about the BringBackOurGirls harsh tag’s

  Popularity worldwide. The Boko Haramists

  Should have used the swords of words

  To channel what they are agitating

  For. In the stead of this terrorism

  Which they now practise.

  RAMS’ BLOOD SPEECH

  by Abegunde Sunday Olaoluwa

  #BringBackOurGirls

  Quickly silently like a mouse

  You creep in havoc devouring adult folks

  Poor infants sleeping you bomb their houses

  Your fume of inferno got them choke

  With silent violent you've killed our children

  To protest against education

  Vipers! Must you infest with your ignorance?

  Anti-book Rams! Why ruin our nation?

  Your heartless shots drown kids with blood

  Gadzooks! Alleged holy pestilence

  Heartless heartlessness you wrath with swords

  Like cows, you slaughter men in silent violence

  All you folks, Bokos are rams

  Rams fight for no cause, causing us holocaust

  Beast-like acts, voicing not why you maim

  As their tears drips down my pen

  I pull my pen straight from my heart

  O'er you insurgence I ponder and wonder

  How your peace loving ‘God’

  Delights in gush of blood

  Your en-blundered fanaticism

  Kisses us endanger

  Blood-sucking Rams! Unleashing terrors

  With evil spiced with gloomy horrors

  Come out of your fanatic mentality

  My pen's tears cries ‘halt this calamity’

  Rams! Fight the core not the people

  Your spear reaches the rich and poor

  Let known your plight with swords of word

  Stop this odd speech of blood.

  Think rams! Speak your heart in dialogue

  Appositely channel your wants

  Make your wants clear and blunt

  Sheath your sword and stop the splits of blood

  RAMS’ BLOOD SPEECH (2)

  Recklessness of blood-sucking rams

  Butting to hurl the spice of the future

  Harmless teens going for their exam

  Bomb you off their treasured vision

  How swift you truncate their morrow

  I tell it to you viper-like rams

  Doom! Doom! Thy ruin in nigh

  With teeth, carnivorous rams slaughters

  Sleeting throats of men as fowls

  And wickedly bursting to laughter

  O vipers called Bokos are rams

  Aren’t your teeth for straws and hays?

  Blood of your bros you ought protect

  Fight injustice with thine butting

  Fight in delight for the light

  You’re once peaceful in our garden

  How turn thee carnivorous vipers?

  Gloominess of you omnivores

  Now your brother gazes in dismay

  Wondering how you’d gone astray

  Like an insane sibling watched he you

  Like a gentle lion, he watches you

  Awaiting the mysterious cure

  Of insanity’s clasp on thee

  Think vipers! Bro is waiting

  RAMS’ BLOOD SPEECH (3)

  O vipers called rams

  Thundering via my spine and mind

  Like the lion’s roar in vengeance

  Flowing through my heart’s chamber

  Thought of vipers called o rams.

  Fishing the pig you’re in dens

  Your brother yelling out aloud

  Hoping to have you return home

  Hoping to rescue you from doom

  Come home vipers to be again as bro

  In pain, your brothers fight thee

  He sees his wood struck thine hood

  Yet care to help treat your wound

  Ouch! You yelled, tearing his veins

  Smiling, you swords his flesh again

  He fights you to rescue you

  You fight him madly to kill him

  He wants a win-win

  You want an I win – You lose

  Repent! Bro’s embrace is open.

  REMOVE THE BARRIERS

  by Christena AV Williams

  Oh, Lord!

  I cannot understand

  Why there is no more love

  Remove the barriers

  Of racial segregation

  Disunity of religion and

  The political division

  I cry not for blacks or white

  However, I cry for mankind

  Oh, Lord!

  As you created this world,

  I knew this was not your plan

  Men sought power and greed and for that,

  Slavery was to be

  No one cares for you or me

  So
Lord remove the barriers

  Therefore, all and I may live as one

  We are royals

  We are all kings and queens

  So what made you think?

  You were more supreme

  And we all are created in the image of the king

  Oh, Lord!

  Remove the barriers.

  I DREAM

  by Robert Broadbent

  I dream of a world living in peace,

  The end of all conflicts, no more disease, 

  Respect for the old, respect for the young,

  End to the tanks the rocket and gun.

  I dream of a time when hunger has gone,

  The whole wide world living as one,

  Saying together, “Never no more!”

  Hatred and fighting what is it all for?

  Living a life that’s meant to be,

  Sharing and caring for all that we see,

  Pulling together in one human team,

  It may never happen…but still I can dream!

 

  DEAD MAN WALKING

  by Jude Uchella

  Death is my enemy

  Life is my foe

  I despise both

  They won't let me go.

  I dream daily

  Of inner peace

  And eternal sleep

  But get a flirting kiss.

  The cast of my past

  'Sembles many nights

  A plethora of vices

  Ample to kill my rights.

  Yet I am free

  But bound by

  The critic inside

  And daily I die.

  Each morn I see

  Glowers still

  Each night

  Spurs to kill.

  I can stop my breath

  With pinched nostrils

  I can go no farther

  For a force repels.

  So I live on

  A dead man...

  LET REVIVE OUR LAND

  by Justice Mmahi

  In the fields of butchers

  Swollen corpses fester,

  Amidst the gory of blood

  Overwhelming the land

  Now that the Rain has fallen

  And washed them into the sea

  We now have to drink

  From the ponds of violence

  Let’s revive our land,

  Encircle our smiles

  With iron bars of unity

  We have harvested much of hate

  In battles of tongue rattles.

  Between two pines;

  The soul is in need of another

  Let revive our land!

  But not with blood of heroes

  Soaked to dample the heart