Wet Roads of Benue

To Christopher Okigbo To Chinua Achebe To Wole Soyinka To JP Clarks To Habila Helon A measure of time past I am part of your dark side To this wayward side of this wet Benue roads, children had learnt to be naked leaving their thoughts hang in the air, Famished. Cattle and herdmen Death and people The watermarks upon our woes. Before the moon belched And the wind sneezed loudly After the sun unmasked the empty roads The wetness of those roads split our innocence journeying from Enugu to kogi, and cattle, the roads companions; retracing images of forgotten land. Wounded dust groans Grasses quake in communal voices Journey testes like a sour chicken, Like a village defeated by war, Like a burning passion of hatred. Those wet roads are the cause of our hunger Games and no politicians seen crying as the children are dying! Forgetting the food basket of the land Is forgetting our tomorrow in the hands of hunger! Yours poetically, ©John Chizoba Vincent.