Two Poems: National Youth Service Corps Poem by Chime Justice Ndubuisi

High walls, and armed men
Issuing out commands;
Armed men whose heart are either old or cold.
We, like prisoners on white, and
Under spell, blinded by dedication,
Sauntering here and there
Haunted by the voices that command
And the trumpet that wakes us.
Darkness became our companion,
Men sleep-running,
Boys stumbling and fumbling.
And the girls:
Many always don't bath,
Smelling like fatigue and half asleep, .
Yet they always double-up, for
If you are walking, you are wrong
If you are seated, you're on your own.

If you have been there,
If you've worn that khaki that does not fit,
If you've been made to sleep late,
If you've been made to wake early,
If ever your life have been regimented,
And subjected to a routine,
If you've been fed a tasteless jell-of-rice,
Or a watery soup,
If ever you've queued up for food,
You'd probably know how pathetic,
How demeaning and dehumanizing
It is to be a beggar, and you
Might be touched if you see
A real one, haggard and hungry
Lying on the street side.
Your heart might go out to
A hungry-stricken hand waving for alms.

When the hen beckons,
The chicks quickly saunter around her.
It's our service to our nation:
A call we can't resist;
We think of what we can offer,
And not what can be offered us.

But If you could listen to our heartbeats
Hoarding love and spilling blood,
Pounding under the sun and in the rain,
Or the crack of our stress-beaten backs
Or our rioting stomachs,
If you could imagine serving an adult
Little food meant for children,
You'd probably quickly stop your ears
To the clarion call!

Service and Humility: Who Buys Our Thought?
By Chime Justice Ndubuisi (CJN)

We are here, like time that fleets,
Ever advancing forward and never retreating
Stout at heart, swift in art and act.
We think it brave to serve others,
Not thinking of the glorious benefits
Or our own personal gainful aggrandizement,
Entwined in stocks of natural delight,
But taking each day by the horn or thorn
And making it better than we found it.

Take a look at your future, what do you see?
Does it shine like the star?
Does it cast a flash to blind your eyes?
Put not your trust in the palm of men
But be a hero in deeds than in words.
We'll always have the chance to change our lives
If only we would dare and keep daring;
If only we would dampen the last ember
Of that toothless dog called low self-esteem;
If only we would awaken that dying pride;
The national pride, we would but shine
While we bear the torch of service and humility.

You’ll find in every age,
A worker worthy of his wage;
In every time and place
That the swift don’t always win the race;
In every book and every page
Evidences that life is a stage
And people acting out their life’s worth,
Albeit traveling on the same path.

I've gone to the market searching,
I've searched hills and dales and I've found
That in this field of battle called life,
A selfish life is a life half-lived.
Therefore, let us live, and part if need be
And leave memories behind, engraved in hearts
Such that those we leave behind would cuddle
And those coming after us would embrace
The path to national service and humility
And make their lives sublime, crested in the sand of time.