Freedom of speech is assured until you say what is actually on your mind,
Then you would see the things you love taken without the option of fine;
With a few words or sentences, you could bag a life sentence.
We hold the last fragments of our hope on placards that are shot up to pieces,
Reaching the skies to God like WhatsApp messages as pleas for peace.
In this place, your words hold no weight, they fall on deaf ears.
Your words can make you a stranger in the land bequeathed to your fathers,
Exiled from your heritage, torn from your roots.
See no evil; say no evil to those who do evil,
For you might be another flower for the gardener's eager shears,
Sniped before you can blossom.
There are killers in the north, savages in the South,
But newscasters are gagged on live television with guns to their heads,
And radios ripped of their batteries to be praise singers and not storytellers;
They pick their battles wisely and choose not to show the war in our backyards.
Warriors no longer take up arms for a cause.
For a bag, they sit behind keyboards seeing sweetness in a mass of bitter leaves.
The Ogas at the top just like Big Brother have an all-seeing eye,
If you dare say a word they will flip the switch, plunge us into darkness.
They don't sit to discuss pressing issues; they invent new ways of oppressing the press,
Spinning the narrative like yarn till the truth is tangled in the chaos.
You have the right to remain silent or you will be cancelled out like improper fractions.
This has become a part of our culture; we are common denominators to unjust mob actions.
PARRHESIA! As long as I speak without any infractions,
I will tell the truth without any additions or subtractions.
Udochukwu Chidera is a Nigerian writer and pharmacist of Igbo descent. Chi Dera has several literary accolades including the LitFestBergen 2024 Dissolution Climate Change Prize (2nd Prize Winner), the 2023 AS Abugi Prize (2nd Prize Winner), the 2023 BKPW Poetry Contest (3rd Place), and the 2022 Movement of the People Poetry Contest (winner). She has also won or been finalist for several other literary prizes. She has works published or forthcoming in CỌ́N-SCÌÒ Magazine, IHRAF Thorn, Tears, and Treachery Anthology for the Sudanese War, Non-Profit Quarterly Magazine, Love and Other Stupid Things Anthology, Fortunate Traveller, Tush Magazine, 2022 Chinua Achebe Poetry/Essay Anthology, Ngiga Review, World Voices Magazine, and elsewhere. She is @queenderaa001 on Instagram, Chidera Udochukwu on Facebook, @chi_deraa001 on X (Twitter) and can be reached at www.deraudo1@gmail.com.
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