I Shall Echo. Poem by Abednego Oghenechovwiere Omashone

Part 1
Keep quiet!
He orders
When I raise my voice,
Yet he won’t let my
Poetic soul rest in peace.

He tickles me with murdered kisses
And young lovers promises,
Yet, he frowns when I laugh.

“My jewel of inestimable value…”
He calls me. Ahaan!
You shall supper; but,
“Let the dogs be first fed.”
That was my lover talking!

The golden hen that
Lay the golden egg
Is mine. But,
I’m not needed at the table.

Shall I continually
Eat the dogs’ leftover?
Shall my clothing
Forever be second-hand okirika?
Shall my place of abode
Eternally be with the pigs?
And yet never to compose
Eulogies and epics for this
Hero of doom?
Shall my mouth be perpetually
Sealed, never to raise
The echo?

“Keep quiet! ! I say! ”
He ordered again and again!

To the Most Supreme One
Whose will surpasses all mortal’s
I petition daily
To vindicate me and my lover.

Part 2
Oh! My lover!
For that known coming day,
In which all mortal must
Forever be silent in transit
To the great beyond,
Including you and me,
I shan’t let you
Shout me down.

I shall celebrate your faithfulness
And your ever tenderness
I shall write on marbles.
See, while my fellows beat
The drums,
I shall raise the sonorous
Echo.
I tell you!
The sound waves shall take it
Afar, o’er lands and oceans.

Knowing those to come
Shall judge our
Verse versa fair treatments
I shan’t be silent,
But, speak true.

('Ahaan' is a form of exclamation in my part of the world_The Urhobos in Delta State of Nigeria. 'Okirika' is the term for fairly used clothes in the Nigerian Pidgin-English.)