Cemalukian Coinage Now A Linguistic Case Study Poem by Tony Cemaluk

Not coin in pocket — but coin in tongue.

Cemaluk did not mint gold, he minted meaning.
They said define it — He lived it.

From Ojoto idioms to English syntax,
From Mama's tutelage to global lexicon.

ODNNNN taught him — Ochie Dike Nnem na Nnam,
Nwanyi Ka Nwoke — The Amazing Amazon of Ojoto,
Primed his passion, forged his tongue.

War without war weaponry,
Staff not gold, Pound cocoyam —
His thought became mint, his tongue became anthem.

Now scholars say: Cemalukian coinage —
Morphology of memory, syntax of soul.
Now Cemaluk, beside trained terrain, compares
with titans of word coinage.

Just pure Passionate Poet
honoring his amazing Amazon mother,
minting unique words in marble
apt for an extraordinary matriarch
of two giants — Egbuonu and Cemaluk.

From one room provision store,
to a case study in provision of words.