Strife Poems
Futility
by Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu
I return from a meaningless war
After witnessing a senseless carnage.
Behind me, bows and arrows with a
Hollow quiver.
The war is over, but rages on beyond
My escaped limits, where iguanas hum
Messages across festered hills.
The war was senseless and so was I.
The cause was infantile, ruthlessly foolish.
......
Desert
by Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu
Lamentations alone cannot stop
the bleeding of the land at the ankles,
nor stop the tears of Deluge
Grief matters little in a prophesied
pogrom, for a general death is
not reckoned with evil —
And prophecies shall remain with rain
forty days and forty nights;
......
Earth
by Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu
Earth,
that fine, pneumatic
piece of gem from space,
bulbous, bluish with
the hand of beauty
adorned with furry clouds,
yet in closer sense lies
senseless to internal
doom.
Portrait of Ruin
by Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu
Stone walls have fallen,
Alongside them the foot-bridge
Over the silken, gleaming stream
Submerged by wailing soils,
Ancestral pillars bow to the
Pressures of aged boulders
Rain is betrayed by lightning,
And with potent razors sharper
......
Trial by Fire
by Bhaskaranand Jha Bhaskar
All steps grow thorns and thistles
Boulders lie hidden from the walking eyes;
Some throw them out with ease
While some fall down and writhe with cries.
Life is a testing trial by fire
Everybody must stride out of fear and tear;
Some see black in blues and reds
While some go green and grin far and near.
......
The Church
by Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu
During the peace of the altar,
Pews knelt down piously;
The pulpit stood and conducted
Peace;
Verdure, rosary and the paternoster
Bloomed;
And the clergy hummed soulfully.
Seasons.
Roars, rasps and hisses of tension
......
Sleeping Seas
by Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu
Tumultuous clouds above keep vigil
On a cold, grey night, mourning the
Killing of visible stars...
Soot-darkness veils the brows of the
Skies in one orgy of perfidy, transmuting
The agelessness of heaven into a
Yolk of newness, fragile and tendril-tender.
Arrogant terns weave mock baskets for
......
Guernica
by Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu
Dark frame of mind ensconces frontiers
with a blanched dapple of strife.
Hell is let loose on Desert,
bewildered by new griefs of a listless heaven.
Camels hit by flame-tailed arrows
soothe their flayed humps;
other alien beasts hone in one stretch of prayer,
reminding God of the promise of Rainbow.
The prepuce of Desert reclines and
peels off, revealing the whiteness of Death....
......
Futility
by Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu
I return from a meaningless war
After witnessing a senseless carnage.
Behind me, bows and arrows with a
Hollow quiver.
The war is over, but rages on beyond
My escaped limits, where iguanas hum
Messages across festered hills.
The war was senseless and so was I.
The cause was infantile, ruthlessly foolish.
......
Earth
by Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu
Earth,
that fine, pneumatic
piece of gem from space,
bulbous, bluish with
the hand of beauty
adorned with furry clouds,
yet in closer sense lies
senseless to internal
doom.
