The N.D Poem by Funkekeme Akposeye

My home! ! ! my village! ! My
zone! ! ! My heritage! ! !
slowly transforming into a town
as I pray and dream of it turning
into a city,
what a pity feeding the nation
and suffering from kwashiorkor
I see the tears of the children
unable to get the basic
necessities of life
and hear the crying voices of the
wives and the old as they realize
the youths are getting bold
and would no longer fold all
because of the liquid gold our
gift and our curse,
God forbid, why was it found
here I wonder and the benefits
are shared every where except
here I ponder,
prejudice, it keeps the people
crippled under fear year after
year, injustice.
My forefathers lived off this land
and our mothers dipped us into
its waters as before we could
open our eyes
and fed us from its aquatic life
when we grew hungry and
swam in it when we felt lonely
now it is a only a distant
memory told to us by the homely
elders, funny but touching
matters.
My community has a rig it burns
day and night second after
second every hour, month after
month every year,
the colorful flames the workers
and the machines what a sight
causing us plight,
covering us like a wig, black gold
like black leaf mold brought
change as it was foretold,
not wonderful but powerful
change, the weather, the land,
the waters even the people
changed, diseases, violence,
immorality and hopelessness
now rest in the bosoms of the
people and their hearts tainted
with poverty
so if you see them walking
around painted with a frown
don’ t blame them but spread the
news around.
My people know the truth but
still choose to believe in lies, we
know its our top leaders that
have chose to keep us below, in
their campaigns telling us as
long as we obey and follow
without complain, our stomachs
will not be hollow,
our thoughts are so shallow as
we swallow what we are able to
find after a day of wallow,
one of us is a hero and the rest
are zeroes and if you don ’ t
know by now am talking about
the NIGER- DELTA.