A Cold Night In Warri Poem by NDIDI UBOGU

The time came when crickets sang unpleasant songs
When stars became visible but struggled to shine
When moon shed tears of blood!

Songs of war echoed from the south …
Destroying every tree with their bloody swords!
Under his bed, a toddler frightened terribly
as they stamped their feet with vengeance.
Their brothers were slaughtered!
Their hands stained with their fathers' blood!

They screamed joyfully after beheading a man
They played weird games with their victim's head
They made the wind wailed through the trees!
Then he realised that blood was flowing.

Burning huts attempted to assist the struggling stars
Then he felt the lowly tears of the moon.
Whose hut would be next?
When many have been rendered homeless!

His little heart cuddled his sister's heartbeat
Under his bed … longing for dawn
But crickets sang unpleasant songs,
Whilst moon shed tears of blood
What a cold night I will never forget in Warri.