Parting Rite Poem by Abubakar Ahmed Imam

With stern faces we stand
On this beckoning sand
Facing east
Praying for the deceased

“O’ Lord, forgive and have mercy upon them
O’ Lord, have mercy upon us when we become what they have become
O’ Lord, reward their good deeds with goodness
And their sins with mercy and forgiveness

These streams of tears
That flow from the duct of our eyes
And the pain that we bear
May you reward with paradise

Bitterness and hate
Overtake the beauty of our land
Today we lay our dead
That You may offer them Your eternal land

Tomorrow again heads will roll
That is the way of infidelity
But all that we seek as we fall
Is the will to forever glorify Thee”

Soon, our prayer is done
Soon, our brothers are gone
Soon, the sun licks
The last tear on our cheeks.