The City Yawns Poem by Tony Adah

The city drives
In cars and on bikes and on foot
The people live in mansions
High and low.

Road medians are painted with black and white
Shining with greens of royal palms
And these wave only to the nouveau riches
in their exotic cars.

The city shines
Only on her surface
Inside the city a brown slum looms
Waterfronts riddled with stilted houses
The drains green with stink.

The dumps are old
Their hair grey with empty packs
Of 'pure water'and bottled water
Plastic cans of Coke, Miranda, Pepsi
Piko, Five Alive and all the effluents
From the abodes of the affluent.

The city shines and the city stinks
The city hums in hymns of satisfaction
And the city wails in song of dearth
The city's streets are paved
The city's streets are rut full and potholes
Where the poor swim with toads and frogs
Are the creations of oblivion
On the other side.

At night
The city streets on one side
Look like a snake holding torches
On its mouth and tail and its body
The city shines on one side
And it is dark on the other.

The city has its colours
Of good and bad
But it is the good side
That's always shown
The rest of the city yawns.