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POETRY

TELL DEATH (a poem for Festus Iyayi and Mandela)

Staff WriterDecember 18, 2013July 16, 2017

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Read Time:1 Minute, 47 Second

Till Death
www.facebook.com/WRRPoetry [Till Death]
He will come. Sure he will
Like a NEPA official with his ladder
To collect remuneration for last months’ NEPA bill,
The bill for an epileptic power supply which was never used to our fill
Sure he will come to confiscate our life-wire
For the thief cometh only but to steal and kill.

…Every fear is courage unborn

But tell him, tell Death
That our silence is a kind of scream
And that every nightmare too is a dream
Tell death that the tomb
will only be the womb of our rebirth
the passage to the home of the free

…Every Nightmare is a dream

O tell him, tell Death
That against his wish, the fickle fish
Will wriggle his way through the fisherman’s net
And the blind will find at night a new vision of day –
Light: a fresh insight
Tell death that we shall join the roots
To their school underground and study tirelessly
Till found is that wellspring of wisdom, the fountain of youth

…The tomb is a womb

Yeah, tell him, tell Death
That the frost of winter will only serve as ether
To pause our latest breath, till the surgery of change is over
And to mercury the morgues freezes our father’s first drop of sweat
Tell Death that every pyrrhic-victory
Of his, is to him a cruel defeat
For our memories will forever defy gravity
And our sublime stories challenge his myth

…Silence too is a scream

Please tell him, tell Death
That he can put out the fire in our eyes
But the ember in our heart never dies
Tell death, that every fear is a courage soon to be born
And every night a ship that berths at the port of morn
We are not afraid to set sail for to succeed is first to fail

Silence is a kind of scream
Every nightmare too is a dream
The tomb is a womb
Death our rebirth
A rite of passage to the home of the free

Written by: Soonest Nathaniel Scholes

About Post Author

Staff Writer

info@wrr.ng
https://wrr.ng/about-us/

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Tagged africa, Death, dreams, Festus Iyayi, Iyayi, Life, Mandela, Nigeria, Poetry

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5 thoughts on “TELL DEATH (a poem for Festus Iyayi and Mandela)”

  1. kgbethlehem says:
    December 18, 2013 at 4:35 pm

    very good poem~

    Reply
  2. kgbethlehem says:
    December 18, 2013 at 4:43 pm

    very nice poem~

    Reply
  3. kgbethlehem says:
    December 18, 2013 at 4:44 pm

    Reblogged this on kgbethlehem and commented:
    Had to share this; poetry that is good for the soul…

    Reply
  4. simon7banks says:
    December 18, 2013 at 7:32 pm

    Fantastic! I particularly like the bit about the fish and the net, for the words and the image and the feeling.

    What’s NEPA?

    Reply
    1. Kukogho Iruesiri Samson says:
      December 19, 2013 at 12:23 am

      thank you

      Reply

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