The Shadow Of Reality Poem by Auaduma Adookorn

In the shadow of reality, vultures surround
our corpses; we circle fly-perch food
on famine grill lay sick and worn out

Gaseous smoke of hold-up vehicles
oozes slow-lethal air, choke our breath;
so boring, so scary is urban life

This slow-drift life had no foot print
on the soil of my hamlet of Norkwiri
where nature awesome divine love

Heal free with her soothing herbs; there,
we used to drink virgin wine from nature tree
and roasted yam with grub dripping oil of lengthy days

We told stories of ancient warriors
who taunted the thrust of slavery, drove
away the locust with mosquitoe and etch
their foot print in the sand of history

Come festive weeks of the new yam,
the Akehkpo warriors display their powess
in a wrestle, and the acrobatic dance of rItual
competition in honour of the fallen heroes,

The yorwaalo masquerade, spirit of the fallen
warriors were not defiled with foreign gods
and the taboo affair with the mother of twins
eat keweh soup served with pounded yam

'Baya, let's go fishing; we shall serve
our guests and the gods

carry your creel
pull the canoe
cast the net

In shallow water at the sea shore
at the bank
at the bay

O, no catch; with empty creel let's hurry
home and tell the tale of a dying sea -
once a haven of aquatic lives, gifted
to care for the blessed poor, now lie
a sun-scourged hearth of dead mangroves

Where dynamite extinct fishes poisoned
with crude spill, as man porter the full sack
of greed, dumps toxic waste in the sea,
and shatters the homes of aquatic lives

Shell fish lurch on the bay of crude,
lay drunk on carcasses of black gold
at the sea bank and expires

Wandering birds, without a cove, seek
for cot to nest, soar the sky of extinction.