This Dangerous Blessing Poem by Chukuemeka Akpe

Unction from above oozes from below as dark, muddy flows
Blessing the land with fame and riches as heaven knows

Pantheon of economic gods quickly demoted to a black deity
Worshippers soon congregating to form a blood-sucking laity

Poverty, as a wrestler, clasps the masses in a deathly hold
Feeble cries muffled by scornful laughs of barons of gold

The barren farmlands groan under the oppression of weeds
As green hands roam the cities tilling hard ground for feeds

Putrid fishes crudely poison the tables of host communities
Now forsaken by the satiated parasites as anemic nonentities

Regattas of yesterday have become today’s internecine wars
Warlords tagged renegades paddling with munitions as oars

Barrel filled patrons lounge in corridors of power to fawn
They assemble at dusk for homage and minister till dawn

Paralyses trail the season of the spell of dry nozzles
Excuses cascading from rocky pedestals as puzzles

An assemblage of eminent personalities smeared with grafts
The stench rising as a smoke message spread their fishy crafts

Burgeoning reserves in alien vaults serve kith and kin
While wards are served carrions from the national bin

Appendages of power emasculated by drooling froths of constant seizure
Drape the villages, towns and cities with thick blanket for night’s leisure









June 2006©