Horror Race Poem by Martin Ayanbare Ayankola

As the dusk gave way to dawn
I was trekking on my way home and I saw
a lifeless body with flies hovering over it

The vacant eyes told a story
A story of horror and inhumanity,
The body would be there for days
On the Lagos Streets

Here I am in London
Watching the same horror race,
Teenagers totting guns
Felling young men under hails of bullets
In a horror race,

Rain of tears fall from my eyes
As I watch parents burying an eleven-year old
Killed before he understood the world
In this horror race

Mankind hides under religion,
He hides under all sorts of pretences
To commit atrocities

From Lagos to London to Kabul to Baghdad,
Mankind needs redemption from this horror race