A Day Shall Come Poem by Olalekan Joseph Ajayi

Long before strangers burrowed our earth
To suck out precious black liquid
And drowned the fishes in our waters
Our rivers were flooded with fishermen

Long before the flares provoked the skies
To emit tart rains that poisoned our soils
And hastened the age of our zinc roofs
Our vast land embraced seeds and cuttings

Long before our clouds became surreal
And bequeathed the moon an ugly face
That sent convulsions amongst our children
The trees bore witness to our folktales

Long before liners lined our village shores
To fetch golden waters from the delta
Pyramids of nuts graced the northern spheres
And palm trees lined plantations in the south

The black liquid has set brothers at war
And broken the snare of thieving natives
Oil has blurred the vision of statesmen
And heaped on us a deluge of curses

Poor owners of the wells wail otiosely
Potable water has oil turned fetid
And their farmlands cemeteries for seeds
But a day shall come…

A day shall come when these fierce flares will cease
And fresh breeze greets nostrils in the delta

A day shall come when greedy precept givers
Will balance the perpetually tilted scale

A day shall come when these lamentations
Become laughters of satisfied men

A day shall come when fetchers of wood
Will gather from this infected land sticks of hope

A day shall come when planters of suckers
Will harvest fat fingers of plantain

A day shall come when the stars reappear
In the night skies of these oil-laden lands

A day shall come when strangers will mingle
And the fear of ransom seekers exorcised

A day shall come when the swamp prodigals
Will return renouncing war for peace

A day shall come when this yoke of curse
Will be revoked and honey in oil's place flows