Dirge Poems
Funeral Songs for the Generals
by Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu
Drums for us, the wasted Masters
Catafalques for them, covetous Generals.
How far have they gone in wasting us,
In ruining our harvests —
Bloodsucking Generals with shrivelled scrotums?
Crowned predators.
Embellished idiots.
Distinguished poachers —
......
Had he known...
by Graham Ereks
It was very early in the morning,
I can recall, not without mourning.
The roads were soaked; the cloud pregnant--
The gnats in all facades, the water was stagnant.
Full of ecstasy, he descended from the bed,
No doubt the night before he was well-fed.
How full of life he always was, not until then;
He was ravaged like a prey in a lion's den.
Had he known, He'd have have been stationary,
......
Death in the New Year
by Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu
Our hands are tied, Death
Since you dawned on us this New Year . . .
Shapely bottles of champagnes have shone
And have broken to fragments with the ululation
Of firecrackers that warmed cold and dark wintry skies.
Now, aphonia sets in from unending lamentations.
Headlines, buried by the chilly bones of winter,
Are barren of good tidings.
A chionophile besieges the rim of a sedulous Yuletide
......
The Entombment
by Graham Ereks
A woman of virtue
Is no more;
A woman loved by all.
A wife and, doubtless,
A great mother.
Surreptitiously death’s taken
Her away from us.
Your living body I reminisce,
Not your cadaver.
......
Mama's Son
by Graham Ereks
'I'll be back soonest', he said to mama blithely,
Nescient of the state's cannibalistic hostility.
How can mama take this inhumanity likely?
Tear-drops every day, thanks to brutality.
Bloodthirsty men-in-black, liveried omnipresent
Ambassadors of anarchy, never at all decent.
Haranguers of licitness, promoters of inequity,
Vampires they are,for they are an insignia of nonentity.
......
Death in the New Year
by Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu
Our hands are tied, Death
Since you dawned on us this New Year . . .
Shapely bottles of champagnes have shone
And have broken to fragments with the ululation
Of firecrackers that warmed cold and dark wintry skies.
Now, aphonia sets in from unending lamentations.
Headlines, buried by the chilly bones of winter,
Are barren of good tidings.
A chionophile besieges the rim of a sedulous Yuletide
......
Sorrow
by Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu
The webs are obstinate
And refuse a hug of the
Broomsticks, besmirched
By diluted coal tar.
Grey walls fascinate dancing
Grimes before your pupils
Dilating even at daytime
To screen the woes on such
Walls painted by dilemmas
That pruned the vestiges of
......
Funeral Songs for the Generals
by Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu
Drums for us, the wasted Masters
Catafalques for them, covetous Generals.
How far have they gone in wasting us,
In ruining our harvests —
Bloodsucking Generals with shrivelled scrotums?
Crowned predators.
Embellished idiots.
Distinguished poachers —
......
Behind the Sun
by Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu
The faces of the tom-toms were sallow,
So was the face of the sun, dark-visaged,
Red, and starved through a pogrom
That assaulted the peace of the beasts.
Darkness spelt the names of diseases,
Each pronounced through stiffened tongues,
Whited by the scourge of hate – a common
Figure, cadaverous and laconic, but incestuous.
......
George
by Olorunleke Olorode
George, I leaped for joy
When the news of your arrival broke
The height of the happiness
I can't explain
That "tiwon ban gesin ninumi kolekose"
Same with your mother
In the past was vitro fat professed
Yet you came unannounced
Making joy overshadow our hearts
......
