Login
|
Join PoetrySoup
Home
Submit Poems
Login
Sign Up
Member Home
My Poems
My Quotes
My Profile & Settings
My Inboxes
My Outboxes
Soup Mail
Contest Results/Status
Contests
Poems
Poets
Famous Poems
Famous Poets
Dictionary
Types of Poems
Videos
Resources
Syllable Counter
Articles
Forum
Blogs
Poem of the Day
New Poems
Anthology
Grammar Check
Greeting Card Maker
Classifieds
Quotes
Short Stories
Member Area
Member Home
My Profile and Settings
My Poems
My Quotes
My Short Stories
My Articles
My Comments Inboxes
My Comments Outboxes
Soup Mail
Poetry Contests
Contest Results/Status
Followers
Poems of Poets I Follow
Friend Builder
Soup Social
Poetry Forum
New/Upcoming Features
The Wall
Soup Facebook Page
Who is Online
Link to Us
Member Poems
Poems - Top 100 New
Poems - Top 100 All-Time
Poems - Best
Poems - by Topic
Poems - New (All)
Poems - New (PM)
Poems - New by Poet
Poems - Random
Poems - Read
Poems - Unread
Member Poets
Poets - Best New
Poets - New
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems Recent
Poets - Top 100 Community
Poets - Top 100 Contest
Famous Poems
Famous Poems - African American
Famous Poems - Best
Famous Poems - Classical
Famous Poems - English
Famous Poems - Haiku
Famous Poems - Love
Famous Poems - Short
Famous Poems - Top 100
Famous Poets
Famous Poets - Living
Famous Poets - Most Popular
Famous Poets - Top 100
Famous Poets - Best
Famous Poets - Women
Famous Poets - African American
Famous Poets - Beat
Famous Poets - Cinquain
Famous Poets - Classical
Famous Poets - English
Famous Poets - Haiku
Famous Poets - Hindi
Famous Poets - Jewish
Famous Poets - Love
Famous Poets - Metaphysical
Famous Poets - Modern
Famous Poets - Punjabi
Famous Poets - Romantic
Famous Poets - Spanish
Famous Poets - Suicidal
Famous Poets - Urdu
Famous Poets - War
Poetry Resources
Anagrams
Bible
Book Store
Character Counter
Cliché Finder
Poetry Clichés
Common Words
Copyright Information
Grammar
Grammar Checker
Homonym
Homophones
How to Write a Poem
Lyrics
Love Poem Generator
New Poetic Forms
Plagiarism Checker
Poetics
Poetry Art
Publishing
Random Word Generator
Spell Checker
Store
What is Good Poetry?
Word Counter
Email Poem
Your IP Address: 3.149.243.131
Your Email Address:
Required
Email Address Not Valid.
To Email Address:
Email Address Not Valid.
Required
Subject
Required
Personal Note:
Poem Title:
Poem
The forgotten god Whose rage should burn hotter than mine; melt the noon day sun, dry up all thy rivers, scorch the earth, that thy crops may burn to ashes before thine eyes, and the heat from the very earth upon which ye stand, make roasted beef of thy feet? Whose anger’s eruption should be more terrifying than Mount Vesuvius, spewing kilometer tall jets of volcanic ash into the atmosphere, that the very air thou breathes into thy nostrils, be as from bellows into a blacksmith’s forge, cooking up thy lungs, making thy tongue be so parched, that, in thy maddening thirst, thine eyes will be blind to reason, and thine ears deaf to thy folly, and in thy desperation, thou would make a complete jest of thyself, in the glare of all, and wallow in the futility of attempting to squeeze water, out of the dust of the Sahara? Whose eyes should cry more than mine, with tear ducts unleashing centuries of pent-up tears, enough to rain for a decade without ceasing, and watch thy towns and cities flood, until the last peak is submerged, and thy children and cattle drown before thy very eyes and make a dainty feast for the fishes of the seas? Today, “he was the god of our fathers” thou would say. But, would thou have been, if I had not kept thy fathers’ fathers before thee? When I looked away, and thy farmlands lacked rain and nourishment, the harvest was poor, and famine overtook thy towns, did thy fathers not run to my shrines with offerings of: sheep and goats, their slaves and even their children’s blood? Did I not re-nourish the earth, give them bountiful harvests and make their paupers eat like kings? Who led thy fathers’ fathers into battles as Sango or Amadioha, with the might of lightning and thunder going before them, and striking terror into the hearts of their foes, bringing the enemies to their knees, groveling before thy fathers’ fathers and offering their lands, wives and children, in surrender, even before thy fathers’ first arrows left their bows, or before their machetes left their sheaths, to draw blood? By whose knowledge as Ogun, that from the dust of the earth, the hands of thy fathers forged iron and shaped it into countless tools, of both war and peace, and of merriment and shedding of blood? Who taught thy fathers the seasons, Agriculture, what herbs healed what, and what herbs killed what, that in sickness, they may also have health? Who as Simingi, Akaso, or Finibeso, taught thy fathers the navigation of the seas, the cycles of the tides, and the language of the fishes? Who taught thy fathers how to shackle the wind, Conjure the rain at will, tame lightning and thunder, commune with the spirits and ancestors and foretell the future? Should I go on? All these are in books of thy history- both those written by strangers who knew not my ways, and those written by thy mis-educated children. I will not let my grief at thy loss overcome me. I will weep for thee and chose to forgive thy transgressions, appear powerless in thy eyes, as I watch thee desecrate my remaining shrines, call me pagan like the white skinned men from foreign climes and forsake my ways completely, as thou continue to glorify foreign deities. Today, thou would say “his time is long past”. Though that may seem to be so, but I will sit here laughing mirthlessly, and watch thy time go, just as I watched it come, and as I watched thy fathers times come and go before thee, hoping that, if thou does not remember the ways of thy fathers, and return to me, thy children after thee, will. They will surely return to me………. They will return to me…… They will return to me, the forgotten god! June 28, 2017 Written for "Create a character" poetry contest sponsored by Cecelia Hopkins-Drewer.
CAPTCHA Preview
Type the characters you see in the picture
Required