Charged with thunder, dark and cold
Tears a-flowing like endless streams
Scores of cold-blood butchery
Littered there and here
A haven we held it were
In wanton degree
Lives, like candles
Are snuffed out
Cherished ones gone
We are sorrow-torn
‘They’ seem to care not
Calm, strangled
We stand on grenades
Our shields, more than never, are porous
Peace now is a vain belief
We bask in fear
Shorn of a vestige of relief
Joyless daylights
Tranquil-less nights
Fright hangs upon our hearts’ beating
Bombs visit our gatherings
Broods are captured
To be seen never
In ‘their’ palaces, they revel
While families wail
‘A dance on the graves of the murdered’
The sentinels, lily-livered
From fight bolt
Brandishing the mirage of our safety
Already, our faith in them
Soi-disant top brass
Almost is extinguished
So much dim and faint
That which resembles hope
Withers more and more
Hearts great misery hold
Shivers stick to us
Like wild gums on tree-trunks
How long will these things remain?
This chasm that yawns so wide
Betwixt here and a promised land?
*Offered in the memory of all who have died in the hands of Boko Haram. May they find bliss in God.
Written by: Okwudinka Chinonso Nuel
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