We are children once amused at tales of a snake
slithering away with 36 million fractions of commonwealth,
We were the learners once outwitted by a monkey
who disappeared with double the snake’s loot

We are the ones toiling for an irregular pittance,
overfed with sorrow, tears and blood
while those we empower earn
hundreds of times more.

We are Agatu, Logo, Guma, Nkanu;
despised children whose lives
would be worthy of concern,
if they were cattle.

We are Chibok, Baga, Dapchi, Mubi,
Buni-Yadi; abused, gone too soon.
We are the unloved, vagabond
children of an uncaring father.

We are the oppressed, seeking redress
where the accused is both judge
and executor. Confidence is a distant relative
slaughtered on the slab of injustice.

We are Jesse, Abule-ado, Abule-Egba,
unfortunate ones, set ablaze,
in our nations wealth, yet blamed
for her shameless neglect.

We are the Odi emergency,
wiped out but not forgotten,
ants decimated by the sledgehammer
of power, our blood cries out; still.

We are Lekki, Alausa, #EndSARS
futures truncated, voices stifled
by rulers who send armed soldiers
to a conversation with children

We are ones whose massacre will not
be erased, whitewashed by the very ones
who strangle us, dim our tomorrow
while we grope amidst today’s crumbs.

We are the infants overfed on
sorrow, tears and blood,
We are the hitherto ‘Woke’,
now awakened, demanding better.

We are the questions that will grind your teeth,
we are the meal that will choke you to surrender.
We are answers that will not be swallowed
in your divide-and-rule games,

We are the puppies of a scoundrel country,
determined to ride through myriad upheavals.
We are midwives of this unstoppable rebirth,
and we, will no longer be silenced!

24.20.20

********

Post photo by Nengi Nelson via Unsplash