Joseph Oladehinde Ibikunle

Father Africa! At a token ignorance,
You have given your inheritance:
To strangers you gave so much.
White fellows who did not eat in our dish.
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Thou, who hath the spirit of poetry;
Unto thee today I bow to call
To the service and worship of poetry.
I entreat and bid thee to my call.
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I, who will die
And entombed under a stone
Amid of sands I'll lie
I'll be too conscious to groan.
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He tries not to meditate evils
Nor with his hands sordidly paddles
He who knows he is ephemeral
He disports not himself at funeral.
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Like these innocent children,
We gathered submitting our rights
To you, these honourable men
Who have led us to this place of plights.
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The eulogy of my spirit
Which is the euphony of myself,
My soul rises from His temple
Bearing a big lamp
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The earth and the sky
He made them twain.
The left and the right
He made them twain.
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Away, away!
I command thee, spiritus.
This be not thy stay,
Remember the forbidden laws.
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Dear friends and kin
This be my exhorting
Walk not the path of treachery
Gaze the heaven with clemency
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Thou art not unkind
Like earthly friend with sordid mind
Who will go no step to be fair
But million miles to be insincere.
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And so she becomes, my sunshine
She came like the moon of August
A felicitous friend from divine
She bore joy, love and trust.
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All, after his expiration,
His eyes glaze once beneath the earth.
But those letters of adoration
Will be explored in a leaflet.
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Dear revered reader,
From my heart these gently trigger.

Let them who cry in pain
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My eyelids are flicking
Tired of all day vision
And my soul sedately sinking.
Let me sleep!
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I am myself,
Who paddles the canoe of my destiny
Upon the tumultuous ocean of life.
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Chant the eulogies of our fathers
In a mild melodious tune.
Let the birds fling and flap their feathers.
Africa, do no ancestor impugn.
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The memories were drawn
Long ago before I was born;
That in the year of the dragon,
A small Phoenix was born.
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Turbulence engulf my mind
It beats in a fearful rhythm
My legs tremble with a great bind
Dear countrymen, our brute is brim.
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