Gone Again(Ogbanje) Poem by Chukwuebuka Adebayo

We have destroyed your iyi-uwa*
Yet you are dead once again
But now that you are gone again,
There is no tears for your death
There is no shadowy rays to fear
Now you've closed your white eyeballs.
You the fiery son of a bullet
Nwa idemili, nwa sina mmiri!
Wait, dont go yet! Look up at that house
Cherekwa nwa, Lezie ndiiche* no ilo ahu!
Fly not away yet to that evil forest
…..The woman calls you nkemjika*
She is so weak, she feel been cheated
She is broken, she feel been shattered
Don't do this to her again……………..please. (15)


You make her spirit curse her chi*
Gini ka I choro, o bu ewu ma isi aturu?
How long would you make her a fool?
How long would you be a sojourner,
That goes in summer and returns at winter?
Why not stay to suck on her heavy breasts?
Do not go down beneath that dark caves
Ejezina! …..biko! ……………biko……ejezina!
I should know you hear the whistlings
Of Nza*birds from branches to branches
The noisy strikes of many snapping twigs
Rustling footsteps coming through the dry leaves
There is a demi-spirit there leaning
Upon the trunk of that palm tree,
His earnest waving is for you. (30)


He is not there, (31)
Don't give him ears.
Things are fine here,
life is fine too.
come here and stay, come and stay
Why would you prefer an iroko tree
To mother's warm and softer bosom?
Or share sleeps in the tiny-ants holes
When other kids are eager,
They eager to play with you?
Things are fine here,
life is fine too.
come here and stay, come and stay
come here and stay, come and stay.
Come and make her a mother too.

@ Lagos state 2018 Sunday 4,

*iyi-uwa: a whitelike stone which connects the ogbanje child with spirit world, but when digged out and destroyed the child would not die again.
*Ndiiche: gathering of elders
*Nkemjika: the one I have got is the best.
*Chi: the supreme God
*Nza: a kind of very little noisy bird.