The Begging Beggars
En-route Onikan Stadium
I had evaporated from
My abode in Samonda
Only to condense in Iwo road.
There I saw them begging
One barely leaves before
Another jumps on us
They were beggars of the Niger-Area.
Behold !an old haggard
Tattered looking woman,
Muttering some prayers
Only to her very self,
Cowries she needed.
Then comes another man
Clad in all white attire,
Making incantations through
His chimney-like look.
He shakes his head chanting
Some rehearsed -versed prayers
Meant for us passengers
In all, cowries he demanded.
Appears another blind man
With a kid directing his three legs
The first leg he points to pave way
For the other two legs
For he seeth no more
Cowries they needed too.
Two kids looking rumpled
Their mother tailing from afar
They are from a lake called Chad
The Chadian kids chanting,
Singing in aYoruba language
Their Yoruba pronunciation brings
Passenger’s teeth out impromptu.
Only then and there,
They got attention more
Cowries they had more than others.
More came till I lost count of them
For three scores of a minute
Beggars came begging for cowries ,
Poverty hovers round them
Wretchedness consume their look
Like a Vulture that is about
Being starved to death.
They are all indeed wretched of
The Earth on our own Earth.
The driver fired the engine
Still lost in my thought
About the begging beggars.
I looked through the windows
Only to find more beggars in Lagos
Cowries, they all needed.
Are we not all beggars in this land?
Begging for food , water, shelter ,air . . .
Killing ourselves for crumbs from their table
Even amidst plenty
They have made us empty
They are Gold- Diggers of our wealth.
For how long would we beg?
Can we ever stop begging?
Can we ever exist without begging?
Were we born to beg?
I said to myself “ No”.
We are not destined to beg
We are only made to beg
To suit their whims and caprices
But our desperation to get to the
Destination of our dream land
Lies with the destiny in our hands.
Alayande Stephen. T
February 11th, 2006
11.35am
A true life story.
On my way to Onikan stadium in Lagos
For NANS Zone D Convention .It all happened
Between Iwo Road and Lagos.
Copyright © Alayande Stephen | Year Posted 2006
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