Fools' Holiday Poem by DOMINIC PREMPEH

I will not sing your praise for sharing pads
Instead of fixing the problems with our lights
I will not accept your padding of our backs
And later giving us a bunch of lies

It is funny how leaders light the perpetual flame
Of a supposed freedom turned into servitude
And of a supposed sovereignty turned into neo-imperialism
For we tend the greens…but eat from the icy alien land

We lie promising the masses heaven and earth
And saving them from dearth
With the innate desire of looting wealth
Forgetting there will be another election

Fools' holiday you want to give us
Enslaving us under freedom
Misdirecting us with ‘true lies'
And, heaving pains in our own kingdom

Why fight on who achieved independence
And foolishly cut trees at the edge of a desert
Why sit on a time bomb and light fire
Why, why this fools' holiday

Fools' holiday we have…
Whilst we tender someone's farm and leave our own
And keep on resting in the midst of famine
Whence we show paucity in the midst of affluence

We sit under leaky thatches playing games
We forget to build a ‘bridget' over the winding stream
And never dredge the drains
Forgetting the rains will soon come

We move unplanned and dream of better days
Thinking of tomorrow like it is ours
And day-dreaming without proper planning
Forgetting there is no tomorrow

(June,2015; Ofoase)