I Will Tell The World Poem by Oluwatosin Richard Shiba Aribo

Waterfalls'
Chandeliers'
Brazilian girls' and
Fast cars,
I like them, but do not want to speak of them'
Not today.

I want to speak for us!

I want to tell this story, of these people,
This journey,
This troubled history'
This odyssey full of flames!

I will take em' by the hand,
Past the murky waters,
Into the cassava farm.

One by one
We will point out the shallow graves'
Freshly buried between the hedges'
Ibrahim, soji, okon, enyinaya, osamudia, Boniface, mariann'
There's still fire in your dead bones!

I will speak of our fathers', true soldiers,
Who died with their boots on!

I will pull the world by her almost deaf ears'
And spit into em' about the strife,
The useless wars,
The nonsense arguments,
The hopeless rivalries,
The galloping cavalries,
Riding towards no man's land'

I will jack em' up!
By their pants, their belt buckles,
And drag em' to where our home used to be.
Where we used to laugh,
As families are supposed to.

And I will ask em', pointing to the spot,
Can you see the ruins?
Can you see the wreckage still floating in the air?
I will look into their eyes'
But they won't look into mine'

The world will hear our stories
our defeat, redemption, tribulation, victories,
Of death, rebirth and life,
About the fortitude,
Days' scorched with solitude,

I want to talk about the camps
Hidden from sight'
The soldiers', the cocked rifles'

I will speak of our passion,
Raw and violent as it is
The cold showers, the rattling sex'
The church bells,
Our hopes
Our prayers,
I will write it down, scream it out,
Spit it out, scribble it on walls,
On trees, on cars', moving trains
Post it in mails.
A graffiti

I will retrieve the gleaming axes'
Still glinting with the blood of you and me,
I wish to talk about our women'
How they carried the world on their heads'
And at other times strapped her to their backs

I want to speak for us!
For the generations, the centuries, the universe
Show the themes'
The dogfights'
The power'
The domination'
The sparks'
The eternal struggle'
The freedom'
The chains, still jangling'

I will show how we walked
I will show how we died'
I will tell the whole world
I am going to tell em' everything
That happened to us!