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BRIGITTE POIRSON POETRY CONTEST 2015: ONISOWURUN SAMPSON WINS JUNE EDITION

<body><div class&equals;"booster-block booster-read-block">&NewLine; <div class&equals;"twp-read-time">&NewLine; &Tab;<i class&equals;"booster-icon twp-clock"><&sol;i> <span>Read Time&colon;<&sol;span>13 Minute&comma; 39 Second <&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine; <&sol;div><blockquote><p>Onisowurun Sampson has won the <a title&equals;"CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS&colon; BRIGITTE POIRSON POETRY CONTEST 2015 &lbrack;JUNE&rsqb;" href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;wrr&period;ng&sol;authorpedia&sol;call-for-submissions-brigitte-poirson-poetry-contest-2015-june&sol;">BRIGITTE POIRSON POETRY CONTEST &lpar;BPPC&rpar; 2015<&sol;a>&comma; June edition with the theme&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;TRADITIONS AND CULTURE”&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Sampson is a young Nigerian Lawyer and author of &OpenCurlyQuote;Eyes of Passion’&comma; is presently serving his fatherland under the National Youth Service Corps programme in Oyo State&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>His invocative entry <em>&OpenCurlyQuote;YOU DO NOT TAKE UBUNTU FROM MEN’<&sol;em> scored 87 points to edge second placed <em>&OpenCurlyQuote;CONQUEROR OF THE UNIVERSE’<&sol;em> by <strong>Abd-hamid Abd-afeez Adedamola<&sol;strong>&period; In joint second-runner up position is <strong>Essang Etim Emmanuel<&sol;strong>&OpenCurlyQuote;s <em>&OpenCurlyQuote;LOST CULTURES&colon; BIRTHED TO RESTORE’<&sol;em> and <em>&OpenCurlyQuote;TWO-FIFTY SHADES OF GREEN’<&sol;em> by <strong>Njoku Chidubem Joseph<&sol;strong>&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Sampson’s writing interest covers poetry&comma; drama&comma; prose&comma; poetics&sol;literary criticism and essays and some of his poems have been published on platforms like The UK Poetry Library&comma; African Eyeball and several others&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He takes over as champion from <a title&equals;"CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS&colon; BRIGITTE POIRSON POETRY CONTEST 2015 &lbrack;MAY&rsqb;" href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;wrr&period;ng&sol;authorpedia&sol;call-for-submissions-brigitte-poirson-poetry-contest-2015-may&sol;">May <&sol;a><a title&equals;"CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS&colon; BRIGITTE POIRSON POETRY CONTEST 2015 &lbrack;MAY&rsqb;" href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;wrr&period;ng&sol;authorpedia&sol;call-for-submissions-brigitte-poirson-poetry-contest-2015-may&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">edition <&sol;a>winner&comma; <a title&equals;"BRIGITTE POIRSON POETRY CONTEST 2015&colon; SHOWUNMI OLAWALE MICHAEL WINS MAY EDITION" href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;wrr&period;ng&sol;authorpedia&sol;brigitte-poirson-poetry-contest-2015-showunmi-olawale-michael-wins-may-edition&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Showunmi Olawale Micheal<&sol;a>&comma; who is also a serving corps members&comma; and becomes the 5th winner in the history of the competition which began in February 2015&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Judges scored the entries based on Structure &lpar;harmony of words&comma; presentation&comma; etc&period;&rpar; Creativity&sol;Originality and Relevance to the chosen Theme&period; All entries that made the shortlist are automatically entered for the ALBER JUNGERS POETRY PRIZE to be awarded in January 2015&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Below are the top 10 entries with marks obtained&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ol>&NewLine;<li>YOU DO NOT TAKE UBUNTU FROM MEN by Onisowurun Sampson &lpar;87&percnt;&rpar;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>CONQUEROR OF THE UNIVERSE by Abd-hamid Abd-afeez Adedamola &lpar;86&percnt;&rpar;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>LOST CULTURES&colon; BIRTHED TO RESTORE Essang Etim &lpar;85&percnt;&rpar;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>TWO-FIFTY SHADES OF GREEN by Njoku Chidubem Joseph &lpar;85&percnt;&rpar;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>A CULTURE’S REVIVAL &lpar;PALINDROME&rpar; by Iwundu &lpar;84&percnt;&rpar;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>A PRODIGAL RETURNS by Justice Jite-Eda Email&colon; &lpar;84&percnt;&rpar;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>THE AFRICAN HERITAGE by Ayoola Goodness Olanrewaju &lpar;83&percnt;&rpar;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>LET US DANCE&comma; AFRICA&excl; By Mesioye Johnson&comma;”Affable” &lpar;83&percnt;&rpar;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>KITAN by ADEDAYO ADEYEMI AGARAU &lpar;83&percnt;&rpar;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>BIAFRA STILL EXISTS by Obi Johnson Woko &lpar;83&percnt;&rpar;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ol>&NewLine;<p><strong>YOU DO NOT TAKE UBUNTU FROM MEN by Onisowurun Sampson &lpar;87&percnt;&rpar;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>&lpar;The cottonwood tree does not grow in only one nation – Igbo proverb&period;&rpar;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ubuntu is cord woven across dialects of plateaus and hill&comma;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The thread spurned to unite the fold with iron hold&comma;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A living earthenware that draws fingers for communal meal&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ubuntu makes the self-styled sparrow wing homeward bearing garlands for kindred&period; It runs deep as rivulets of blood lodged in human vein&period; Elongate’s like Whitman’s line&comma; wavy like lengths of lines from Senghor’s foundry&period; So does this creation of thought&comma; branching out like sides of a tree to latitudes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Beyond kindred&comma; it wings like grey-headed albatross&comma; above perimeters of Nguni Bantu into Sub-Saharan territories&comma; Horn of Africa&comma; rest of Africa and uttermost regions of the globe&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>You do not take Ubuntu from men&period; Ubuntu says we are one&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It feeds the humanity in men&semi; relics of tradition and culture like blood in vein&period;<br>&NewLine;Ubuntu survives the death of Caliphates and yet Caliphates live because Ubuntu courses through their veins&period; It rotates on time’s fragile cycle&comma; patient like Tuareg camel&comma; swift like horses in the Sahel&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ubuntu wings beyond modern dogma&period; It is an iron bird of all time<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>That cannot be bound&period; Athletic and stout is that bird&period; With poetic justice&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A metonymy for tradition and culture&period; Ubuntu is the voice of tradition&period; Tradition is the thread woven seamlessly across seasons to bygone eras&period; Hung on it are dundun and bata&comma; iron agogo bell&comma; sekere of the festive season beautified with beads and cowrie shell&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Lovely Igbo maidens gleam in cacao treat&comma; wear wrapper and bead<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As they answer melodies from windy native opi&comma; ichaka and igba&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ubuntu is the womb where Nok Terracota&comma; and royal Bini mask of ivory receive nutrients&comma; are nurtured and grow to light&period; A kernel of truth calcified in time&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><strong>CONQUEROR OF THE UNIVERSE by Abd-hamid Abd-afeez Adedamola &lpar;86&percnt;&rpar;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>I am lost&comma; stuck in a strange world&semi;<br>&NewLine;A froth&comma; from a rich nutrient broth&period;<br>&NewLine;Choices tempts me as arrays of wonderful musks&period;<br>&NewLine;My dilemma heightens in this atmosphere of confusion&period;<br>&NewLine;I ask questions&comma; I need answers in wisdom’s form&period;<br>&NewLine;A noble voice quench my thirst up&comma;<br>&NewLine;It tells of me&comma; witnessing the beauty of human culture&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I see values in dazzling colours&comma;<br>&NewLine;Believes in crimson glow&comma;<br>&NewLine;Creativity in bubbly floats&comma; within hearts of note&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I saw moral in soaring heights&period;<br>&NewLine;And orderliness in social strata&period;<br>&NewLine;The spirit of accord whirl around tradition&comma;<br>&NewLine;As it time-travels across generations&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Tradition is nothing but an ancestral architect&comma;<br>&NewLine;In the hearts of men he built a strong basement&period;<br>&NewLine;on which the factory of culture erects&period;<br>&NewLine;With such foundation and factory presence&comma;<br>&NewLine;What products shall we see&quest;<br>&NewLine;Arrays of rich creativities based on believes&comma;<br>&NewLine;An eventuality that leaves each community completely unique&period;<br>&NewLine;Their social strata&comma; reflecting the hand work of cultural ethics&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Though human might be marred&comma;<br>&NewLine;With lingering disunity and disputes rising&period;<br>&NewLine;Yet human race have survived for years&comma;<br>&NewLine;Because always have a tradition of survival&semi;<br>&NewLine;And a culture of creative civilization&comma;<br>&NewLine;Made us a conquerer of the universe&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><strong>LOST CULTURES&colon; BIRTHED TO RESTORE Essang Etim Emmanuel &lpar;85&percnt;&rpar;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>I<br>&NewLine;Come&comma; Little One&period; Come&comma; let me show you the times&period; Aye&comma; history unfurls &OpenCurlyQuote;neath us&excl;<br>&NewLine;Adore&comma; the pillars of our existence&comma; reverence the earth<br>&NewLine;upon which we have trod&comma; hear the rhythm of the festive drumbeats&comma;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>watch our nimble feet shuffle through mild moonlit sand- our lips<br>&NewLine;wordlessly hum in one accord&semi; admire the fabrics that our dignity preserve&period;<br>&NewLine;Pray&comma; desire thee not these things&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>II<br>&NewLine;Observe&comma; the big black bold beautiful beads of sweat that at the harvest gleam&period;<br>&NewLine;Look&excl; Machetes swing high and lo&comma; to and fro&comma; laced with dutiful venom&comma;<br>&NewLine;strain thine ears&comma; Little One&comma; catch the faint pristine melody of the womenfolk&comma;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>watch it meekly ascend to the clouds&comma; &OpenCurlyQuote;twined with the smoke of the evening meal&period;<br>&NewLine;Despise not&comma; the wisdom of the wise old sages&comma; memorized<br>&NewLine;by beardless bards&comma; preserved by moonlight&comma; playmates recite<br>&NewLine;neither with slate nor with tablets&period; Pray&comma; deny not what you see&comma;<br>&NewLine;for even the Strange Ones drool with delight for<br>&NewLine;fleshly mounds that adorn our chests&comma; helpless<br>&NewLine;they stare&comma; they stare&comma; they stare…<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>III<br>&NewLine;Now the &OpenCurlyQuote;scape is grim with crimes firmly forged in our foundations&comma;<br>&NewLine;look away&comma; Little One&excl; Turn thither thine ears and this hubristic carnage ignore&excl;<br>&NewLine;For infant skeletons mark the Evil Forest&comma; poor pure souls left to rot&comma;<br>&NewLine;communal clashes on bloody battlfields&comma; upon our own swords we fall&comma;<br>&NewLine;when in blindfolded wisdom we mutilate&comma; with crude cruel blades&semi;<br>&NewLine;even the Strange Ones exit&comma; hearts heavy with shame…<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>IV&period;<br>&NewLine;Look now&comma; Little One&excl; Look now&comma; for the Strange Ones are back&comma;<br>&NewLine;compassion and pity flood their sockets&comma; thoughts of annihilation lurking in their skulls&period;<br>&NewLine;To save us from us have they journeyed hither&comma; yet with stealthy steel is their gentle gospel coated&period;<br>&NewLine;Stop them&comma; Little One&comma; stop them&excl; For in their wake do our pillars crumble&comma;<br>&NewLine;our dignity is shredded&comma; our nudity shown in the lunar glare of the marketplace&period;<br>&NewLine;Go now&comma; Little One&comma; go&excl; For our cultures you must reclaim&comma; our glory you must restore&excl;<br>&NewLine;Be brave&comma; for you must&comma; Little One&comma; our salvation in your hands now lay…<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><strong>TWO-FIFTY SHADES OF GREEN By Njoku Chidubem Joseph &lpar;85&percnt;&rpar;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>Two-fifty shades of green&colon;<br>&NewLine;A plethora of Imams&comma; Chief Priests and Bishops<br>&NewLine;Diverse faith&semi;<br>&NewLine;Fused into a solitary vision— one green State&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Two-fifty unique shades<br>&NewLine;Housed by thirty-six sheds<br>&NewLine;Should have been a survival of the fittest<br>&NewLine;But turns into a delightful blend of variety’s sweetest&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Two-fifty shades&comma; still&period;<br>&NewLine;Paintings from green&semi; beauty fills<br>&NewLine;Radiated in five-twenty-one dulcet rays<br>&NewLine;Different voices&comma; yet the message &OpenCurlyQuote;green’ remains&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Two-fifty shades is all I see<br>&NewLine;When eagles go green and the whistle blows peee&excl;<br>&NewLine;When fufu embraces amala and tuo gives a loud grin<br>&NewLine;Two fifty shades of love&colon; made of black and coated in green&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>A CULTURE’S REVIVAL &lpar;PALINDROME&rpar; by Iwundu Wisdom &lpar;8&percnt;&rpar;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Redeemed culture&semi;<br>&NewLine;A hope found nowhere<br>&NewLine;Negligence and greed surmount<br>&NewLine;To prevail age-old traditions<br>&NewLine;Day after day<br>&NewLine;Westernization enshroud traditions and cultures<br>&NewLine;Abroad and home<br>&NewLine;Thoughts lustful&comma; misplaced priority<br>&NewLine;Customs dead&comma; revived reality<br>&NewLine;Discontent&comma; our doom<br>&NewLine;—Redemption—<br>&NewLine;Doom&comma; our discontent<br>&NewLine;Reality revived dead customs<br>&NewLine;Priority misplaced lustful thoughts<br>&NewLine;Home and abroad<br>&NewLine;Cultures and traditions enshroud Westernization<br>&NewLine;Day after day<br>&NewLine;Traditions&comma; age-old&comma; prevail<br>&NewLine;To surmount greed<br>&NewLine;And negligence&comma; nowhere found&semi; hope<br>&NewLine;A culture redeemed&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><strong>A PRODIGAL RETURNS by Justice Jite-Eda &lpar;84&percnt;&rpar;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>How did I wander off the hills of your hips&quest;<br>&NewLine;I stopped listening to the parables from your flute<br>&NewLine;And followed after foreign fancy fruit&period;<br>&NewLine;Please let me take the path on your livid skin straight to your lips&period;<br>&NewLine;Papa&comma; I have come home from a house that was never home&comma;<br>&NewLine;From the fabric where I was the stain&comma;<br>&NewLine;With my calabash to fetch and drink wisdom from your rain&period;<br>&NewLine;I have not grown above you&comma; my root is spread in your loam&period;<br>&NewLine;I want to learn &lpar;again&rpar; to revere the totems of old age –<br>&NewLine;Respect brews gray hair and a red cap to fit&period;<br>&NewLine;Arrogance is a subtle choker of tomorrow&period;<br>&NewLine;Beat the drum of labour with your scarred palms&period;<br>&NewLine;I will dance out sweat to irrigate my farm&semi;<br>&NewLine;My feet&comma; sewing a wrapper of dust to cover my shame&period;<br>&NewLine;Mama&comma; I’m back home&comma;<br>&NewLine;To learn how you kept the path between your thighs narrow and fallow&comma;<br>&NewLine;Cherishing chastity until kolanuts were broken and libations made&period;<br>&NewLine;The tongue never moves down the throat when the teeth cuts&period;<br>&NewLine;The conflict between the mortar and pestle smoothens the yam&period;<br>&NewLine;Teach me to tear and smile<br>&NewLine;When smoke from my neighbour’s fireplace choose to rest in my hut&period;<br>&NewLine;I learnt a few good things in my escapade&comma; papa&comma;<br>&NewLine;But more lie in the armpit of our pretty tradition&period;<br>&NewLine;The moon is not a far cry from the son&period;<br>&NewLine;She should not be covered with a basket because she is not the sun&period;<br>&NewLine;Mama&comma; please make a fire to prepare dinner<br>&NewLine;With these dry sticks of superstition&period;<br>&NewLine;I’m back to the river from where I drank life&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><strong>THE AFRICAN HERITAGE by Ayoola Goodness Olanrewaju &lpar;83&percnt;&rpar;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>&lpar;Prologue&rpar;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Bereaved lines bleed in poetical notes<br>&NewLine;Of our heritage in Humpty Dumpty quotes…<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>i<br>&NewLine;And so they found us decency in clothes<br>&NewLine;To cover the glory of our nakedness<br>&NewLine;A renovation of our primitive cultural clothing creed<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Like a gust of a wild wielding windy ride…<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There blew a strange welcomed western breed<br>&NewLine;Spiced in the fashions of a collective craziness<br>&NewLine;And a decayed decency assumed our clothed oaths…<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Our old held heritage eroded<br>&NewLine;Our nakedness never ended…&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>ii<br>&NewLine;Where are the raw beats of dexterity and forte&quest;<br>&NewLine;Where is the beautiful voice of Aduke&quest;<br>&NewLine;Where are the songs in didactic strums&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Where is the music in crude skin and hide&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The daughter of the man and the talking drums<br>&NewLine;Flaunts her body to the noisy nonsense concocted music<br>&NewLine;In abandon to the psychedelic &OpenCurlyQuote;hip hop yippee hey’&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Our treasured heritage is plagued&comma; blind orthodoxies<br>&NewLine;In the embrace of naked noises in stereo boxes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>iii<br>&NewLine;Beautiful beauties untouched&comma;<br>&NewLine;The fine face of a maiden purity<br>&NewLine;And the victorious virgin virtue dance vision…<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The African woman prestige and pride…<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This ravaging rape called passion<br>&NewLine;Has ruined our daughters of pure piety<br>&NewLine;On a loosed lust in dangles&comma; manly pouched&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And we celebrate shameful bridal bash<br>&NewLine;Of beautiful broken calabash…<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&lpar;Epilogue&rpar;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>What glory then&comma; lies in burnt heritage coats&quest;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><strong>LET US DANCE&comma; AFRICA&excl; By Mesioye Johnson&comma;”Affable” &lpar;83&percnt;<&sol;strong>&rpar;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>Under this sighing moon did we gather beliefs<br>&NewLine;Into the howling calabash of whirling Western Culture&comma;<br>&NewLine;Which left splashes of abnormalities on our faces&comma;<br>&NewLine;After piles of tainted tales struck the surface of nature&period;<br>&NewLine;Mama’s wrappers traded honour in the market of tradition<br>&NewLine;Where moderation is the price tagged on fashion&period;<br>&NewLine;Ajala&comma;papa’s &OpenCurlyQuote;kembe’ never wandered below his waist&comma;<br>&NewLine;So&comma; why is yours throwing papa’s lessons into hollows of regret&quest;<br>&NewLine;Abike&comma; the pride that stained the White Cloth with virginity&comma;<br>&NewLine;I revere your being like the dignity appeasing holiness&period;<br>&NewLine;But Ada&comma; why have you allowed luxury dig you so deeply<br>&NewLine;That fortune keeps leaking on the futility surfaced by blunt desires&quest;<br>&NewLine;Asake&comma; why sprinkle thorny worries around our robust clan&quest;<br>&NewLine;Why Africa&comma; Africa why&quest;<br>&NewLine;Why arise to the pleasant call of nature with rags as response<br>&NewLine;To its gong which drags our existence closer to the river of shame&quest;<br>&NewLine;Why allow civilization spray derision into the air<br>&NewLine;After norms turned tatters before memories came so near&comma;<br>&NewLine;Where values already found solace on the dying palm tree<br>&NewLine;Which disgorges nudity like dew on femininity to brag about with glee&quest;<br>&NewLine;Now&comma; gather the drummers at the palace of thoughts&comma;<br>&NewLine;Where beats of chastity is what consumes our hungry hearts<br>&NewLine;With the crunches of resounding caution &OpenCurlyQuote;s appetite&comma;<br>&NewLine;Placing meal of virtues on these starving scrotums&period;<br>&NewLine;Pierce us with chants of revival at life’s gasping shore&comma;<br>&NewLine;For our breath to sail on the rhythms of normalcy&period;<br>&NewLine;Then&comma; prosperity would beckon with her echoing viability&comma;<br>&NewLine;Even in the veins of the unborn with serenity as their cells&period;<br>&NewLine;Notes&colon;<br>&NewLine;Kembe – a type of big-sized trouser worn by fathers in the olden days<br>&NewLine;Abike&comma; Ajala&comma; Ada&comma;&comma; Asake- traditional names of people<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><strong>KITAN by ADEDAYO ADEYEMI AGARAU &lpar;83&percnt;&rpar;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>I&period;<br>&NewLine;Prophesies foretold at the dawn of shame<br>&NewLine;Beside the river beyond the shore of tempting fear<br>&NewLine;Drags our heart down the dusty aisle of hope-<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Remember the tales they told before moonlight&semi;<br>&NewLine;Those they shared during crooked dusk<br>&NewLine;Stupors our heart with a wine of reasoning<br>&NewLine;Sending gaiety down our tortured spines<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Memories of a haunted hut humming hopeful hymns<br>&NewLine;Sets our city ablaze with the fire of superfluous sorry<br>&NewLine;We hold dear these memories at the funeral of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Kulture”<br>&NewLine;Our mother who lost her life to the looting of our homeland<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>So we display foreign goods on the dusty paths to the market place&semi;<br>&NewLine;Singing borrowed song graced with stolen dances at the coronation of our king<br>&NewLine;So we are free from the claws of custom who tied us with cuffs of restriction<br>&NewLine;We shall swim to the tide of forbidden rivers<br>&NewLine;Eating incest as a dessert to quench bored tongues<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>II<br>&NewLine;Aduke can follow Awelewa to dark corridors<br>&NewLine;Catching the glimpse of passion xylemed down taboo’s spine<br>&NewLine;Ajani and Ayanfe too can join to make foursome<br>&NewLine;In a game only bi-clustered hearts should play<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>III<br>&NewLine;Beauty became burning bait for the gods to catch cheating men<br>&NewLine;With thunderbolts throbbing acrobatic moves<br>&NewLine;Cowries became the alluring hook that calls the heart of naked flesh<br>&NewLine;Off the path to the village square to the rites of forsaken riches<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>IV&period;<br>&NewLine;Kitan&comma; tales of beauty were once told in our land<br>&NewLine;Wrinkles of civilization stole breeze off our nights<br>&NewLine;Leaving us with heat to dance to on this soil of shame<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Kitan&comma; Pray for homeland<br>&NewLine;For there seem to be no route off this path of endless doom<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><strong>BIAFRA STILL EXISTS by Obi Johnson Woko &lpar;83&percnt;&rpar;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>When the hands touch the sixth day of every seventh juncture&comma;<br>&NewLine;imagine the tortoise’s face ruptured in his shell and the puncturing<br>&NewLine;of breasts and lungs from the serpent’s tongue&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Remember how the elephant’s tusk was used to split the palm<br>&NewLine;in half and how the leaders saw cubs burned inside their dens<br>&NewLine;and laughed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Remember the torrential outpour of common ancestral blood<br>&NewLine;and how the sky blackened the noon&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Remember the barrage of lead plummeting through<br>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Mother’s” skin and how thousands fled&comma; fled&excl;<br>&NewLine;while imperialistic rodents sucked oil out of her womb&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Remember how the coast was red crossed at the peak of crisis<br>&NewLine;and how the lizard’s tail was used to pick the residue of mice flesh<br>&NewLine;between decayed teeth&period; Remember and weep&period;<br>&NewLine;Weep not just for millions sacrificed for thirst of power&comma; whose<br>&NewLine;crimsoned floods were the bathing site for cannibals in suits—<br>&NewLine;but for the troops that was blinded to hands behind the smoke&period;<br>&NewLine;Weep for those that survived and lived to utter the horrors<br>&NewLine;and were no longer at ease or peace&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Remember&comma; retrace&comma; relive in thought— But do not dance&period;<br>&NewLine;Drum not on the djembe or the omele&comma; but rather on the<br>&NewLine;adolescent bellies of the villages—- inflamed&comma; hollow&comma; and<br>&NewLine;malnourished&period;<br>&NewLine;Drum softly on their bellies by the rivers and hear the agony<br>&NewLine;echo through the forest&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Only then will it be understood why we raise no flags nor<br>&NewLine;celebrate the roasting of swine&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a title&equals;"CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS&colon; BRIGITTE POIRSON POETRY CONTEST 2015 &lbrack;JULY&rsqb;" 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