I didn’t know why the sky suddenly fell on us,
we got deracinated, turned into derelict drift wood,
until mother floated far, found an alien anchorage
for us to feel the flow of our fervid life again.
Times were truly tough in the squall of struggle,
she strived for years, and made for us a home,
where in her soiled hands she sculptured my life,
and made me what I have become.
Time came when my job took me away from her,
but she promised to come one day to live with me.
That day didn’t come, for she left the home she built,
and went away to be in her new abode, not mine.
As I travel down the memory lane,
pine to ask why she didn’t keep her promise,
I realize she had instead gone where she belonged,
among the angels in the starry heaven.
She has left me a long time ago for her new home,
when in bleak night I see the north star shine
to guide me to my final destination, I then know,
she is the star sparkling with the angels now.
I can’t breathe
Cause history made it so
I was brutally deracinated from my homeland
I can’t breathe
Cause the new society I was dumped in made it so
A slave could not be greater than his master
I can’t breathe
Cause the color of my skin was perceived evil
I can’t breathe
Cause my progenitors failed to convince that the content of character is supreme
I can’t breathe
Cause you kneel on my neck perpetually
To deny me good education
To push me into the abyss of poverty
When I try to get some food
You label me a criminal
You deny me fair hearing
You try me in the street
You find me guilty in the street
You convict me in the street
And kneel on my neck so that I can’t breathe forever
*I AM DONE*
Poor us;
Tools we became in the hands of fate.
Like winds fleeing the coast,
We deracinated our homes, families and cultures.
Indeed we were those who dared the agony of our ventures.
Na ga ma
For 365 days,
we treaded on the paths of dedication and selflessness.
Our miseries, we considered not.
In glory undimmed, we journeyed.
Like leafs tossed by the unforgivable winds,
We matched, but not for the love of it.
Mo ti se tan
With jungle booths and antiquated outfits,
We paddled through the tides of time.
Crooked and rough paths indeed, we journeyed through,
Yet, we tarried not.
All we want is a better place in the society.
Eme si gom
I am done.
Yes, I am done.
I have journeyed through ages of selflessness.
And I have crossed the bar.
I have served my nation
And I have conquered time.
God bless Nigeria
God bless NYSC
*By: IKPESU PRINCE IGHO*
*Dedicated to all 2016 batch B corps members*