oluchukwu ifechukwu

In Memoriam Chinua Achebe

How again else
do
our eyes these
dauntless drops drum of sorrow
but that
we never really ever
know Joshua—
being
with us always—till the end of Time,
with us since that immemorial mutinous morning
when our visceral vanity
vies
for his sacrosanct ascendancy
and he by crass custom just jaunting, unsuspecting,
the length and breadth of Eden
stumbles
upon the debacled dethronement cowering aback the figs
at the solemn sound of his afore-friendly footfalls
later that oh noisome noon
whenceforth he
inscribes
our brow with sweat,...