The Air Ride Ended Poem by Haruna Garba

The air ride ended quite haphazardly
Rein-work and the necks pelted
No more airtight holes
Served by selected air symbols
It is beyond the means of the average
As so voiced
And sure now we only go galloping
Aboard Cotonou courtesy scooters

And kwashiorkor
There was kwashiorkor
And an awful self-swapping
Where there ought not be
Babies, you have certainly arrived
When the norm has since been done
Once and perhaps for all

Babies, you certainly have arrived
When the market day is done

At such a morning you have arrived
When the goners remain gone
And the would-be goners
Are trying their last eventual spasm
At their blackantly threshold
poisoned with powder dose

And like distrustful friends
We all can't be certain
To see the next rising of the sun
Would destiny really keep straight path
Towards Can'aan where we should be?
But it twists forming snaky lakes
Crafty handiwork of men
Utopia now a mere pipe dream

There was palm wine
Only palm wine
No narcotics wild or tamed
On this delta which is now in debris
But the sea yawned
And Karl's ghost surfaced
Coveting for fresh weight
But before it re-drowned itself
I held a brief séance with it

Certainly what the father harvests
Says the transparent specter
Belongs to the family at large
And it disappeared
Ere I would put in some words
Ere I would say
That in stages they were cast
In to some irreversible chemistry
Your descendents now shabby and lean


But we are still creeping parasites
Leaning against the giant propping tree
The plants say
That we are hopefully waiting
For the fall of the propping bear

Alas!
The air ride ended
Air-conditioned soaring
No longer within reach
But of the criers alone