The Tribes Gathered Poem by Tony Adah

Two rivers yanked three entities apart
Here the tribes gathered
Their glue loosely lugardized;
At the north the sahel yawned
To swallow the pyramids
That bore peanuts.

Down south
The palms bore their red eyes
And cocoa their turgid breasts.
At the creeks
The wooden boats rowed
With palm oil lamps
In search of livelihood.

Suddenly the earth began to quake
And the blood and bones and flesh
Began to gather-
A ginormous gift by our ancestors
Of petroleum;
Oloibiri is the town
And this is the pivot than spins
Our entity
And our new glue.