The Lay of the Land
If my thoughts had wings
Or better still, had arrows and a bow
To pierce your heart
You will open your emerald eyes
As only seen in the sea of Greenland
Seek my embrace
We will be the sky and the earth
Filling the air with fog
Before we make love
Our Titanic love is too great for
Sluggish humanity to clasp
Kiss me slowly, caress me long
we will purify a putrefied world.
They journeyed back to the past
Digging deep into archives vast
Day and night they laboured on
Unearthing bones from ancient tombs
In search of the lost tongue
The mother tongue of Urhobos
The rope that bound the people as one
Long-lost in the rubble of Ughelli
Under the wreckage of the colonial masters
In the ultimate search by traditionalists
To recover this precious Edoid artifact
And to reclaim their native charms
What they found has putrefied
Foul pidgin flying out of the whole
From the mouth of their offsprings
English Pidgin, full of vile expressions
And flowery metaphors
Has adulterated their true mother tongue
The tongue with which elders conjured words divine
Has lost its power in slanging
They have used us enough
We’re so done with their stuff
We will trade them for dust
Some old snails, or just rust
We’ll exchange them for rocks
They ship well in a box
And to save on some freight
We’ll ship two to a crate
Or between some stale bread
Like a putrefied spread
And once you post their bail
We will pluck them from jail
Then grab hold of their rings
At the end of their strings
Glued to bobble-head brains
That no longer contain
One full thought of their own
That’s why they need a home
But if their head pops loose
It’s just due to misuse
And when their strings are tugged
From both sides of their mug
You’ll hear recorded sounds
That expound and confound
So while it’s in mid-pitch
Just toss it in a ditch
Get the heck out of there
Pinky promise and swear
You’ll chuck mail in trash bins
For used politicians
Here we are trapped and bound
By evil forces difficult to fathom
Here we are naturally endowed
With all of God’s blessings
While 133 million of our children
Wail nightly on empty bowels
Confused and traumatized
Where the next meal will
Come from
Our eyes are wet with tears
Tears of pains and frustration from a nation
So blessed and so cursed
Tears of National disillusionment of
Living daily the consequences of our wrong choices
And like the Ostrich relishing in denial
Of self imposed existential tragedy
Here we are suffering and smiling
And cuddling our oppressors
As heroes and urging them on
To another season of looting in exchange
For a mere pot of putrefied porridge
Now is the call to action
We need to free ourselves
From this army of political occupation
it's as light as snow, the steep hill
when the sun rises must not move a finger,
obedient child, the earth wears its white feathery garment,
putrefied by the wet tears, no need to raise up my eyelids,
speak, or be silent, when i listen
like a newborn wrapped in diapers
i let the snow cover my green eyes,
when you say: not today. not tomorrow.
i don't need to cry,
i look at the world smiling and say to myself: what a miracle, what a blessing,
i don't have to do anything of those things,
i don't even have to expect a breeze, the touch of a ladybug on my hand,
and ”never ”, and ”nothing” becomes so much, so much
so much lighter than a stone arrow,
except,
we still see ourselves in the eyes of forgotten children
among the flowers
even so, everything is much easier, all of a sudden
it gets easier, and easier, now,
when we are about to get older
wise.
THE ARDINGLY JACKDAWS
The jackdaws know from prudent aviation
As they scan the land for real estate that's prime
In touch with best of value in location
The venerable old schools pass test of time
While feral doves and hawks migrate to city
Where humanity's detritus scatters wide
With copious pickings putrefied and gritty
The jackdaws, more selective, have their pride
Choosing well kept lawns and sports fields to supply
A table that's both generous and refined
Then from above look down with corvine eye
On a land that nourishes body soul and mind
Like others who discern a deep heart's cry
Their instinct calls them back to Ardingly
We shall meet again, my friend
in Johannesburg, my friend
After the revolution
Ha! Ha! Ha!
We shall dine on gold plates
And wine on rich red blood
We shall roam the open veldt
from Pietersburg to Natal
Cape Town to Port Elizabeth
Our spears raised in triumph
Our poisoned arrows in their sheaths
Our teeth sharpened for the dinner party
Yes, we shall roam, my friend
From the Limpopo to the Drakensburg
We shall chant
We shall shout
We shall sing and jump and dance
After the revolution
Like the savannah in flames
Our laughter shall be heard
across the length and breadth
of this earth, my friend
Our darkness shall permeate
the golden castles and silver beaches
their presence has putrefied
They all shall be cleansed
Heja! my friend
Till we meet again
in Johannesburg
After the revolution
Teardrops had fallen
and wrung my heart dry
too weak to cry
sweat had trickled down
to feet and palms
hiding in my bulging
eyes.
I had searched
for three days
trembling at a doorknob
locking the masked one
to open the bandaged one
doorknob to doorknob
the night of a mind
searching the labyrinth
of a deadened heart
hoping for life.
I had waited on the waves
to return my cry
combing the sand
sniffing your scent
among the putrefied
begging the fish to vomit up
a lock, a foot, an eye
waiting on the waves
to return my cry
my heart jumped
stretching my lips smiled:
“I know you. My eyes see you”
I ran ahead of my arms
to embrace my life!
Four steps on the sand
where there were only mine
Because you live I live.
I wasn’t ready to see you die.
First Place Winner: Brian Strand-All yours May 5/7/21
Two ladies named Jan and named Lin
professed a forgivable sin
they cornered a dragon
wrung her in a flagon
and gave her away as cheap gin
The old dragon's name was Jooling
who had a habit of drooling
she couldn't stay dry
on ground or in sky
around her urine kept pooling
The ladies had had quite enough
The dragon smelled like bad stuff
so after they did drain her
to cement they did chain her
and threw her sad stench off a bluff
Into the ocean dragon fell
on hitting water she did melt
The girls were relieved
at what they'd achieved
and glad to be rid of the smell
They went on to gain great success
without all that putrefied mess
their poetry was renowned
no matter where it was found
The dragon's now fish food they guess
“ Does the Angel in the Whirlwind still Direct the Storm ? ”
As blood in rivers of crude black burned
the prophets mourned
and woe upon the angel dancing in the storm
to the reign of hail
and bitterness forlorn
have returned their heroes desperate
in ranks made heroic by stone white crosses
To victorious eulogy their march to stagnant
It is but the irony of sand and oil
and hell made fortress by the tongue of lies
And ever innocence in the whirlwind; dies
What of man by the beast encountered
shall savage applause from those demented
in praise to lift them on the tornadoes wings
the seraphim's debacle devours them
they are lost in the irony of oil and sand
as the foul tongue of lies
pours the betrayal of dust into their eyes
Triumph upon the righteousness putrefied
The prophets torn and laid aside
in revelations promises of demise
And ever innocence in the whirlwind; dies
The Lay of the Land
If my thoughts had wings
Or better still had arrows and a bow
To pierce your heart
You will open your emerald eyes
As only seen in the sea of Greenland
Seek my embrace
We will be the sky and the earth
Filling the air with fog
Before we make love
Our Titanic love is too great for
Sluggish humanity to clasp
Kiss me slowly caress me long
And we will purify a putrefied world.
Petition
We animals and after mature cogitation
Enunciate bury the hatchet and in peace abide
To the law of the jungle oppose our deprivation
Terminate the masquerade and nature commodities equally divide
Confide to pathetic humans the charge
To their lust grotesque for power leverage
Revamp hostility to supremacy attain
Ignoramus jackasses seeking to hold the reins
Pharaohs,stars and emperors long proclaimed
The commanded the skies and earth germane
Their bones under earth's scum alighted
Unhurriedly putrefied and fetid smell did remain
It though takes all kinds to make a world
With disparate feathers flock like a bird.
Abdelwaheb Dhaou.
Roaming around the mysterious domain of oblivion
I crept into the caves of pleasure
The crimson joy enveloped me in utter passion
I tried to stand up, but
The lustful hug of the darkness
Prevented me; I prevented myself
From getting an ordained release
Swarms of gothic darkness covered me from tip to toe
They were thirsty; they sucked the present out of me
Myriad ancient tales of kings of emperors of their concubines
Steadily peeled me out, the ecstasy I felt in the pain…
I ran towards the dense and dark woods
With outstretched arms
Because I wanted to hug darkness
To drown in darkness
To elicit darkness from the trees from the herbs
The mythical herbs
That often provided immortality to mystic lovers
The treetops lapped me up in their bosoms
I smiled like a child wept like a child crept
In the wombs of myth of darkness
I know not where to bury my corpse of present
My putrefied me
Good to see you ?
Taste the touch of the night it’s real
Escape reality but find the truth in the deal
Today tomorrow the dust the dawn the steel
Desire deface distract determine then kneel
Hounds of horror barking razor wire cut heal
Watch the look the crooked man the wheel
Inside you choke from perfume inhaled now squeal
The pigs smelly like the sewers they come from for their meal
Putrefied congealed and rife with poison on a knife suffer reveal
A dream that stenches of a matter that in your head pictures peal
The devil will sweat when I bring more fire than any man can wield
Dead souls alive
A deep soiled grave is where I lay as if to say why
The skies clouds rain but I cannot see it but hear its cries
The sun baked the ground above me but I am cold skeletal darkened denied
No one knows I am here except the murderer and of course I
He sleeps tonight alive and in warmth but I can see he cannot forget but he does try
He dreams every night of the time he almost killed me then buried me still alive
I am in purgatory until this land is consecrated while worms crawl around my carcass putrefied
Death comes easy compared to having a soul that will never find its way to freely fly
My soul can travel to places of my past and people I knew while they are by
Sometimes I can talk to family when they are sad and tell them it’ll be alright
The future is tenuous as for me it’s something impossible until they catch the killer and only then may I rest for the rest of my life.
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