EMPTY CHAIRS ON CHILDREN'S DAY
EMPTY CHAIRS ON CHILDREN'S DAY
Today, they tied ribbons on swings that remain still,
Painted bright smiles for Children's Day yet blood we spill.
Who will sing in classrooms with desks left bare?
Our future heroes are taken captive, none to spare.4
Christianah, two years of light turned to night,
Sikiru, three years of wonder wallow in fright,
Rashida, Waliu, Baraka, including Emmanuel —
Forty-six names forced to the terror camp of hell.8
The blackboard still whispers the grip of terror-band,
The swing set still sways, toys littered, no one to reprimand,
The teacher’s chair is empty, the headmaster’s gone —
Joel Adesiyan's family still struggle to move on.¹²
Bandits came with guns, taking Nigeria futures away,
Silencing mothers, tearing hope’s threads astray,
On Children’s Day, the drums should echo,
Yet today, silence fills the air as everyone mellow¹6
Asiwaju, lead aright, and let mercy flow.
Only God can mend our hearts from endless woe.
The worst isn’t absence; the worst is today,
When the government dresses in worthless display,²°
Pretending that the missing are temporarily away,
Forgetting the ransom that grief must repay.
I won’t sing hope that feels cheaply rehearsed,
I will sing dirges to those lives have been shortened.²4
I won’t say prayers while the door stays cursed,
I will lay curses alongside the abductee's family enclosed.
I will say: there are backpacks still packed by the bed,
I will say: there are siblings who no longer said,²8
I will say: there’s a waiting father who stares at the gate
Till the darkness mistakes him for stone in its weight.
Lives traded for glimmer of gold & ruined regime retold
Children taken, their futures beaten & bartered,³²
Nigeria mourns, her spirit confined,
Yet hope flickers, refusing to unwind.
May justice rise, may compassion remain,
And one day, bring the lost back home again.³6
Nigeria need to become a home not a jungle,
Living is a right, it should never be a struggle.
Let them come home, not because we have earned,
Or because heaven or files have been turned,4°
But due to chairs still empty, the lonely room no longer hold a class,
And because a nation that buries its children dies twice.4²
The abducted, bring them back home.
Bring back the forty-six & restore our kingdom.
Bring back the Nigeria that lost it soul,
Bring back the nation that never should have let go.46
© For the children of Oyo State, Oriire, and every missing child in Nigeria.
VICK MANUEL POETRY
Copyright ©?May 27th 2026.
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