The Way Back Home Poem by A A Umar Udubo

We're but some scattered traces
Of a long-lost footprint;
We're like seeds blown
Far and wide by ancient winds
Unmarking our faint trail
Were the sands of time,
Shadowing our spiritual essence
And only leaving a few traces
That torment bygone pursuers
From Kanem to the famous Zaria
Take a tour to northern Lafia
Where the rising sun shines on Adoji
There lies our humble womb
The hair that beard us arose
From the seat of Caliphate down to Jigawa's Kanya
From thence spreading their scions
They took Guddiri settlement
Watering the plant of Justice wherever they be


In Buddha trance-like state
I listen to echoes of waning winds
Carrying the reminiscence of a time trapped
In a fast moving, colliding waves of fate
Uncannily springing from a singular root
And to a silent voice awakening in man
"A magical thread of fellow feeling, "
Of kinship to unknown kinsmen


I see an eloquent picturesque settlement
A mud and thatch habitat
evoking in man
The yearning for maternal protection,
A state of utter safety as womb
Could it be a call to feed worms
And grow grasses?
The crave to return to naught?
The constant closeness of the tomb?