My Travails Poem by Godwin Clement

I eat beyond the yield of my crop,
And I didn't pick the dirt I drop.
My children are treated no more than a maid,
Yet I didn't clear the mess I made.

Now something so tiny is swelling deep inside of me,
I tried to resist it, yet can't seem to break free.
It is that latent baby beast, that slowly grows into a monster,
Into a deadly ferocious monster.

How long before this deadly demon is let loose,
How long before my inner righteousness is denied the wherewithal to choose. Behold the beast is unleashed, upon a guiltless community of free folks,
Who knew not whence and how it was conceived.

I tried to kill and stop the beast,
But it uses from inside of me to resist.
A part of me wishes to slug it out with the beast,
Another part of me wishes to appease the beast to desist.

The beast is about to cut me in two,
for it has already made me blue.

I am Nigeria and its leaders,
and the beast? Boko haram.