Digital Perpetuity Poem by *Tony Cemaluk Egbuonu

Soli Gloria Deo!

On the son who refused to let the line fade.
On the hands that took insignia beyond wood and bead.
On the blood that chose memory over silence.
On the name that chose to echo beyond the grave.

Procreation made me of their flesh.
Digitalization made them of my words.

I took the lineage beyond the compound walls,
Beyond oral tales in moonlight,
Beyond photographs that yellow with time.
I carved them into servers, into threads, into Google.

Chief EzeMalukwuo Onwurah Nwoye Egbuonu
1933 - 1974 Of Ojoto
Mrs. Cecilia EzeMalukwuo Egbuonu, Ebubeagbala, nee Ugbo
1937 - 2026

Now lives in bytes, in poems, in links.
Document-Immortalized.
Because their son planned.
Because their son perfected.
Because their son would not let the light die.

They said it was not easy.
I said, 'Kingship is never easy.'
They said, 'Who will remember? '
I said, 'The internet will. Forever.'

So here I stand
Tony Cemaluk Egbuonu
#Ofu nwa ka umu iri
#One child more than ten children
Keeper of lineage
Architect of digital perpetuity
Lion of Cemaluk Dynasty, Ojoto

The insignia passed.
The responsibility held.
The legacy... digitized.