Conspiracy Against My Soul Poem by Ekwueme Kelechi

Obim, the one who housed my feeble bones
After the day of cultivation
The woman who drank
From the cup of pain
That my eyes may feel the beauty of the day

I remember the day
You whispered sweet nothingness to my ears in ecstasy
To castrate my eyes
From the ceaseless flow of fate
A fate of torture

I remember the day
You infected your smile on that widow
Who life came to for a second battle
You calmed the storm of her life

With a bucket of libation
You donated her troubles to the land

No no, not now Mama
Don't leave my soul
To the feast of sorrow
Don't mask your face away from my sight
Don't bow to the pressure of this tormentor called death

Don't leave me now
That my dreams are yet to know puberty
Please, wait to taste its adulthood
Wait to reap your sown seeds
Wait, that my heart may not tear

But, if you must go Mama
If you must meet Papa and the chariots of your womb
Who left us without a word

If you must meet them
And leave me in the care of grief
Tap my forehead with your lips
Plant on it your mark of ownership

Ay! Oh day! Why have you conspired
Against my fragile soul?
Why?

(c)EKWUEME KC