Ama Alma Okigbo Poems

I start as a leaf
By the time they did not count years
By the time when famine struck
The yellow hot ball would always reward me but
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Sweeping by when the sky was ghost quiet
You could hear the crackling sails on the ship
And the burbling water against the ship
Yes, it is the wind
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Being treated like animals, like nothing
Wearing rags and flogged under the hot African sun
Locked in cages and treated brutally
When would all this be over?
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Little mysteries wrapped in boxes
Squares, circles, and even triangles
Sitting under a spooky tree
Ready to be devoured by our longing hands
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What hears but does not see
What cries but can't scream
Oh, a tortured life
It is about to begin
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As I walked down the street
I saw a girl whose hand was butchered
Sitting in the shadow of her mother, whose head was chopped off
Her eyes rolled down to my feet
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Christmas!
Christmas is full of laughter and cheers to be heard
To touch the souls as it spreads
But never hatred; as people dread
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Frustration is a combination of irritation and agitation.
It feels my body with indigestion.
The irritation and agitation are what human beings call frustration.
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The goddess of life and nature
The defender of humanity
The creator of the land
Tranbonia; we adore you
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An African life! What someone would hear but not see
When someone would cry but not scream
Oh, an African life
What have we become?
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