Unveiling My Dad To The World Poem by Tony Cemaluk

For Fifty-One Years, There Was Silence,
No Frame, No Portrait Bearing His Name,
Only Whispers Carried In Ojoto Winds,
Of A Man They Called EzeMalukwuo.

Born 1933. Called Home 1974.
Forty-One Harmattans - That Was All.
Not A Merchant Of Venice, But Of Naija,
Who Traded Truth From Lafia To Ojoto.

He Wore A Small Mustache,
Hitler-Cut, In Vogue In Those Days,
Trimmed, Modest, Sharp - Not For Pride,
A Mark That Now Lives Again On His Son's Lip.

He Never Borrowed A Crown,
His Was Okpu Ododo, Okpu Nmee -
The True Insignia Of A Titled Chief,
Worn Not With Boast, But With Humility.

His Creed Was Simple, His Law Was Steel:
'Know The Truth And Speak It.'
And Stand For Justice, Though You Stand Alone.
Northern Humility, Igbo Heart.

In 1960, At Twenty-Seven, He Wore A Suit At Lafia,
A Young Groom Bathed In White Church Light.
In 1970, He Wore The Red Cap,
A Father, A Chief, Forty-One And Fulfilled.

He Left, Yet He Never Left,
For I Became His Mirror -
Same Face, Same Mustache, Same Good Heart,
Only Gen Z Height Sets Us Apart,
And That Good Heart Keeps Us Younger Than Age.

Today, I Unveil My Father,
Not From A Faded Album, But From Memory Made Visible,
Chief EzeMalukwuo Onwurah Nwoye Egbuonu,
My Father. My Twin. My Truth.

Welcome Home, Papa.
While We Await The 1960 Groom In Suit,
Let The World, Let The Internet,
Know Your Face Again.