Dead Trees Speak (5) Poem by Orike Didi

I sit at an angle
At the table head
To watch children of men.

Full blooded deceit on rampage
With false wisdom of struggle.

A layer of evil venom
Behind eyelids of decency

Emptiness, complete, merges with ignorance
Hidden in the rib cage of animal.

Cocoyam planters, always plotting
Always busy harvesting plantain.

Wrong-headed beasts, facing mirrors
But standing upside down.

Tongues arriving one hour earlier
Than the brain, the heart nowhere to be found.

Apes in shrouds of self-disdain
Struggling to think politics.

And I sit back
Laughing at a thousand pretences
And reverted into my ancient silence,
That great answer to fools.