Tenants of the Desert
(After a reading of Esiaba Irobi’s “The Kingdom of the Mad”)
Tonight,
Rogues knit systems
Of greed and parade
Dishevelled desires along this
Terrain tarred with congealed
bile
Paupers bruised palms
Unfurl at
crumbs falling off the
Floor of airtight fists;
The weight of branded pain crushes
The tendrils of dreams,
dreams sprouting from
Poisoned pods
Cracked skulls flee from targets
Of shelling guns and retreat to huts
Thatched with cobwebs.
Tonight,
Missionaries incubate coups
and drown
Believers in bowls of brutal baptisms;
Vegetarians make meat of myths,
They mate with
Abattoirs and reproduce
vultures starved
Of flesh
Tonight, I
Stand on the
Cadaver of dreams,
Humming the songs that
Once cheered this bleeding body on…
Coloured Memory
(for all who did not taste the fruit of their labour)
Sleep on, brave potters
Sleep on
Now we know Earth has no shops
For the display of finished products,
No memory for the storage of
Treasured tears
Sleep on, brave potters
Sleep on, brave potters
Sleep on
The lips of suns have
Sucked the moisture in Life’s clay,
Leaving behind murmurs
From broken jaws
Sleep on, brave potters
Sleep on
Sleep on, brave potters
You who sacrificed your comfort
For doomed prodigals
Sleep on
It is the season of tides and
Turmoil
But I would hoist your drying names
On the pinnacle of walled memories,
Sleep on, brave potters
For now we know Earth has no
Shops for display of finished products,
Sleep on, brave potters
Justice Chikaobi Agoha is an emerging writer. He is a graduate of the English Department, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
