Sinister In The Air Poem by Chinonso Iroegbu

The agreement in the spirit world
Awaits the promise of reincarnation;
And the last progenitor
That witnessed this era
Will he ever reincarnate?

Baptism has replaced
The naming ceremony.
Ancestors are melancholy
Decrying this metamorphosis.

We no longer wear our first clothes;
There are now exquisite apparels
In the boutique.

The ancestral obligation
Has been averted by this pervasion;
The taboo is preached
And native priests remain silent.

There is sinister in the air
The breadfruit has fallen before its time;
The Harmattan has refused
To emerge in its time.

The church bells are still ringing.
Mourners should continue weeping.
The tree at the centre of the village
Where the spirits of ancestors meet
Is under duress;

Traditions clash
Religions at war
Where's justice
Now that peace is in jeopardy?

Will the gong ever be hit again?
Will we ever congregate in a single place
For frivolity, for folktales?
Mourners should stop mourning
Let us mourn ourselves.