Casks Of Our Life (Ii) Poem by Chukuemeka Akpe

Vassals of the royal courts deign to till the Land
Cultivating cravated and starched-shirt labourers
Begrudged their servitude and affected speeches.

Berated adolescents daily bemoan their hard luck
Rejecting the hoe and cutlass for the ink and pen,
Toiling to be enlisted on the retinue of the master.

Learning by rote crams the mind of unwieldy load:
Weeds suffocating the brain of productive thoughts,
Harvesting automated hands and dulled inspirations.

An army of androids armed with multi-tiered degrees
Bombard enterprises for positions with shells of pleas
Triumphant militia then arrayed behind polished desks.

Time is often dragged with the slothful cords of gossips
Unmoved by lewd scowls and harangues of weary souls;
Feet traipsing in shuffled paces of well-practiced pretense.

Beauty rather than Brain is banked upon in some quarters
Brazen damsels, lain as snares for the opulent, boost vaults
Trysts convened in quaint lodgings their unreported file notes.

Costumed officials on the road form bastions of corruption;
They sweat daily to fill up the treasure chests of their lords
Cudgels and rifles the hands that wring lawbreakers of notes.

Delinquent politicians rigged into padded seats of prestige
Wear tardiness flamboyantly to debate asinine subjects;
Schoolboy tantrums flung at will to bruise dissenting views.

Beggars mount human roadblocks along routes for recognition
Rebellious drivers employing alms to dismantle the formation
Instantly reconstructed with aplomb for pecuniary de-construction.

Recruited scoundrels are unleashed on the masses at sunrise:
A workforce of unrepentant addicts ever excited by mayhem
Harassment daily used as surgical blade to invasively excise tolls.