Transience

When you look carefully back,
When you were on mama’s back
When you toddled and fell back,
When you happily began to walk,
When, being rude, you received a smack,
When you played with friends in the dark,
And made your dress all black;

Do you remember your school years?
While boarding with your peers?
Those moments, you were all cheers,
When you played and laughed with tears,
There were, as well, moments of fears,
When you had to run downstairs,
To hide from seniors and their sneers.

Do you recall when you started to work?
As a novice, you often got stuck?
Then you ascended due to your hard work?
Others would say this guy had lots of luck.
You created a spirit of teamwork.
You developed a successful network,
Of friends like a true Young Turk.

Life moved from one stage to the other,
You got married and became a father,
Begot one child after another,
Sisters and brothers growing up together,
Happy to have got a dutiful mother,
And the company of a lovely grandmother,
A family that prays for their forefathers.

You worked so people could have light,
You laboured all through the night,
I cannot recall seeing you fight,
Either with people or for your right.
Noble character led you to limelight,
As simple as good morning or good night,
Life can after all be a hallmark of delight.

You became a kind of celebrity,
Always wishing for prosperity,
And the need for giving charity,
Your kindness was surely a rarity,
It was easy to feel your sincerity,
I will align with you in solidarity,
So we could leave a mark for posterity.

Then, life winks its wide eye,
After you made the stakes high,
As clear to climb to the sky,
You retired, it was an emotional goodbye.
Slowly, you faded from the public eye.
Many years hence and I heard: ‘who is this guy?’
Could time not make age to stand by?

Then, I heard that you have died,
Was it true or have people lied?
I then noticed how everyone cried,
I praised God as our ultimate Guide,
There is no place for anybody to hide,
Those guided and those who misguide,
Leave your hair perpetually dyed.

Appreciating our colleagues

Two colleagues, Mustapha and Matilda, having completed their foreign service, were treated to a farewell party at the Embassy of Nigeria in Brussels, Belgium on the 17th July 2018. Praises were showered on the duo for their hard work and good naturedness. I missed the occasion as I was engaged in an official assignment. I however decided to make for my missed chance by composing an "Ode" to state my admiration for their dedication.

Everyone sees pleasure on your face

Good Matilda and Groovy Mustapha,

As you receive showers of praise,

A recognition of a rightful place

For the vigour with which you grasp,

Your work and the values you clasp,

You related well with the Mission,

And its staff to ascend the vision,

of a prosperous and secure nation.

Accept the good wishes of all.

Rank higher and higher, stand tall, 

His Excellency has said it all,

You stood like a very strong wall,

You worked well in answer to your call,

We are sad that you are leaving our fold,

But happy that you aspire to unfold,

Potentials you devotedly got tenfold,

Make your work ethics a stronghold,

So others could mimique your foothold

Changing the climate

Once upon a time, through all climes,

Society was Peaceful and fragrant,
Occupationally responsible.
It protected nature as it would children from danger.
Humans remained humans, and animals animals.
The weather smiled in hearty approval and responded

With courteous disposition.
Dry seasons fetched the Rains, Winter the Spring,
Ushering abundance and assurance.
Trees grew taller, grasses greener and air fresher.
The expansive wild ensured no animals went extinct.

The great sea keeps the Alps and Atlas in strategic juxtaposition
So no one rocks the boat.
Travellers reached destinations and returned Safely,
To the merriment of compatriots.

Then enters Globalisation where

Ominous possibilities proliferate.
Furious technologies of Space and war
Alter the fabric of nature, un-taming its bowels,
Exuding, among others, a repulsive bile:
The ubiquitous climate change.
Green House Gases ooze to deflate the Ozone. 

Warmer temperatures melt age old glaciers and
Acidify oceans.
Unto the world unrolled the quadruple phenomena of 
Tsunamis, Fires, Draughts and wars,
Which lacerate the earth,
Add tons of heat and socio-economic scars,
To keep everlasting fountain of tears
On its once beautiful face.

To allow this edginess of man who breaks his back 

To perfect skills and tools to annihilate,
The Earth converges its experiences,
Shortens its distances.
G.M.O. then determine our lifestyles,
A.I. makes a sea change of them,
And on our humanity, our sense of Justice.
Elsewhere becomes everywhere.
Conflicts swell among erstwhile harmonious communities.
Righteous peoples displace and maim
women, Children and the old.
Deaths from unfathomed ailments
No longer were alien.
Humanity’s poor feels technically at sea,
Their cries rising in the wilderness.

Woes in pictographic clarity are reported
With mirthless smiles and tear-less eyes.
Modern society moves with extraordinary revisionist fervour,
To question its basis of existence.

Orphans

He appears topsy-turvy,
Not measuring up to his class,
His mind seems hollowed,
Emptying at the bottom what enters from the top.
Children giggle at his jumpiness,
His clumsiness.
He has few friends
Or no friends.
Is he really a daft?
His mind wiggles with fright
When he recalls how his father
Was hacked in the middle of the day,
and his mother taken away,
When his village was ransacked
by the insurgents.
He was suddenly orphaned
And made vulnerable.
But for his rescue he recalls not
Where and how he wondered
In the wilderness of his native land.
He is now treated well
With kindness.
“You are handsome my child”
Will utter his new father.
“It will be the last time you experience
The sound of any blast”.
“You will forever be safe”.
He would be held by the hand
When he is carried to the school.
He would be sat by the right
When they eat at night.
He would be checked upon
When he sleeps.
He brightens up
As he attained ten.
His teachers were amazed
At his new found intuition.
He understands all that’s taught to him.
Children found him pleasantly cheerful.
Many of his mates and others,
Orphaned through different circumstances,
were similarly treated by good Samaritans,
who, though scattered, have
Homes away from theirs.
Hearty display of humanity
Which but develops greatness out of adversity.
May God bless they who cater for orphans.

Guard thine loin

Stories were told to children,

Of the years past,
Which were dry and hard,
Occasioning tight harvests,
Inadequate to feed the folks.
Life, between the seasons,
Was passed with hunger and pains,
Uncertain of the future of kids,
And women and the weak.
Of everyone.
Fear was the mother common to all.

Then the sky appears high,
Clear and blue.
The sun rises and shines.
The weather blows warm air,
Inviting the clouds,
Bringing hope for the rains.
Happiness spreads again,
And again, and again.
Confidence appears high,
Among the Inhabitants,
Who prepare for the farms.

Use the rains wisely.
Cultivate all crops extensively.
Grains, tubers and fruits.
Manage your produce cautiously.
Use what you need.
Forget not the needy.
Store excess “for the rainy day”.
Let no rodent pilfer your stock.
Stand guard against scavengers,
Lest they take you back,
Deeply back to oblivion.