Come Let Us Hold Hands And Tell Our Tales Poem by Dr Anthony Onoja

Can you trek from Ameju to Ideme fall?
Because I will show you around when we get home
And is a long trek to the ancestral fall
Maybe I can booboo you on my bamboo back
and shield you from the blazing sun


Sweetheart the beauty is to walk the distance
So you see the wonderful land of Idobe people
Ofcourse there are distance we go with our car
But for you to see the brighter part of this jungle
we walk and talk holding hands and kiss long way home
You will hear the birds singing melody
You will see the forest fire, beaten by winds of harmattan
The aroma of December and the Christmas bells all ringing
The warmness of fire from Akpo and Ocha soup
The dried meat fuzzy its scent from mama oda stand
We hear the morta pounding, Ah! orna is ready
Oh! poundy, poundy! ! our best dish in this remote huts
prepared by my beloved, eaten together in Sufuria
In the coldness of the Mango tree in my father's compound


At nightfall we watch the moon graze the African night sky
I love us when we watch the stars from this empty void
and tell our stories to these remote constellations
We trace the pathways of angels and speaking in tongues of fire
Watching the night towers from the wild intruders
Depart! depart! oh! witch, let not the owl bird cries
for our beloved are asleep
Tell the night to be brief, for its dark in this remote jungle
Let the morning comes, as the cock crows awake us all


We are on our way to the city again we set out soon
Mama wave the flag of bye-bye, with eyes full of teardrops
Return with my grand kids she yell from afar off the hills
Yes mama, we won't come as two but in fours and fives
Off the road we set out and watch the mountains and dwarf trees
moving behind in a military legions as we bow from lower savannah


Next we visit the bright of Benin, the land of posterity
Abundance of palm tree wave us welcome, the great forest of Auchi
The best part of Southern Greenland
There I look forward to say "Migwu", lay prostrate before elders
Eating the fresh catch fishes from great Esako Marshes
Wear the leopard skin and dance across the wild fires of celebration


Now we fly, flew so higher on the winds of clouds
Time came so close to us and we became busy in the streets of Europe
Never forgetting our homes, our land, our people
Never to forget the rarest gems we left behind
and those that made us who we are