Tonye WilliePepple

Tonye WilliePepple Poems

Tonye WilliePepple Biography

Tonye Willie-Pepple is an Ijaw from Bonny Island of Rivers State, Nigeria, he studied Computer Engineering from the Federal University of Technology Owerri, His poems have appeared in Sentinel, Poetry Foundation Ghana and Kalahari Review, He writes poetry, Drama and Short Stories, In 2012 he was short-listed for the Orange Crush Prize for Poetry and in 2013 he won the PEN Nigeria/Saraba Prize for Poetry, He lives in Port-Harcourt, Nigeria where he co-ordinates the Local chapter of The Society of Young Nigerian Writers.)

The Best Poem Of Tonye WilliePepple

The Old Riverbank

There was a certain year
when oyster-shells massaged
founding feet
pacing the old riverbank

In that year, as well,
peppered oyster meat
filled hungry flesh-graves,
nurturing their darkened skins

That was the year
of sand-papered hands
paddling with experienced sticks
Their gloves, salty splash of clapping waves

All those were in that year
when the loosened George
and snow-colored bed-cloth
produced fishing boys and trading girls

The years before the first ships arrived
beat our mother,
raped her hard,
and raised the flaring flag

This red flag
that came from hell
replaced the oyster-pot with us,
cooking us deep, deep, to the bones

And so, on the old riverbank,
no more tales are told
of men who once ate oyster-meat,
who fished and bought and sold

But let the ships know today,
that when our gods paddled away
it was not because of their small canoes
but because they went to get their weights

Tomorrow, when they shall arrive the courts,
drunk from our advocates of tears and gin,
that ship shall either sail or sink in the sea
By the old riverbank.

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