Poems for Peace
Author: Olumide Olaniyan
Originally Published at Peace and Conflict Monitor on: 03/10/2005
Category: Diaries
RAPED BY THE INCUBUS
In the hot
sun
By the side
of the road
The incubus
over-powered us
Tore off our
flesh
Leaked our
blood with snake-like tongue
Like dying
stones, we screamed voicelessly
With shrill
laughter, the incubus crushed our souls
We crumbled
to the soil
Decomposing
alive,
Lost the
ability to think
Searched for
the elusive death
But the
incubus returned
Wrapped
itself around our living remains
Carefully ate
our outer flesh
For if we
die, he dies
The incubus
was one of us
His mother
lived down the road
He
metamorphosed after the mandate he stole
Our fauna and
flora became his bequest
Foreigners he
brought bought our land and labour
Demeaned our
daughters, enslaved our sons
Strong men,
he turned to fauns
To guard him
from our mouthed curses
Election time
is here again
Rivaling
incubuses lurk round the ballot box
They appear
human again
Promising
schools for our brood
Swearing to
pay labourers wages
But it is
another deja vu.
THE EARTH FOUGHT BACK
With cutlasses, hoes and other
weapons,
We tore up its
face
Dug out its
intestines
Drained out its black
blood
These are liquid energies for our
machineries
Not satisfied with its
degradation
We ate up the greens
leaves
With which it hid itself from the
sun
We tramped on it day and
night
Oblivious of its agony
As we marched, drove and skied
To everywhere and
nowhere
In our daily search for happiness
It fought back this
morning
Quaking from its placidity
Buried us beneath our
homes
Which were standing on its
face
Shook the seas and the
wilderness
Killing many
thousands
Showing us its strengths
Which are stronger than our
weaponry
While it is ready to serve
us
(For we are doomed without
it)
We have to tread with
caution
Avoiding it depletion
For if we kill the
earth
We kill ourselves.
THE JOURNEY TO
INEQUALITY
Before we were literate
When development was a stranger
to our land
The happiness of one another was
our goal
Communality was our
ethos
In unity we conquered seas
And mountains and
wildernesses
The inalienability of our rights
was undocumented
Yet, they were not violated
We were a united
humanity
In our endless search for
civilisation
We developed science and
letter
Men then subjected the
women
Whites then enslaved the
blacks
North then sat on the
south
The old then bullied the
young
Able-bodied then oppressed the
disabled
The canny then subjugated the
meek
We struggled to rule
others
Sacrificing liberty for
power
Keeping bullets in barns of
grains
Fighting two wars in one
century
Killing some for their beliefs
and religions
Enslaving others for their colour
and location
Today, we have outlawed
barbarism
The blacks have been
emancipated
Women are conquering
patriarchy
The rest are accusing the
north
Freedom is returning into our
midst
We are becoming human again
THE THOROUGHFARE TO MANKIND
He was born human
With blood and
placenta
Frail, helpless with tearless
cry
With no knowledge of what is
here
Nor with memory of what was
there
But he has come into
despair
His destruction commences at
birth
With the structuring of his
being
He is nurtured to be
wild
And taught to break the vessel of
milk
So he thinks of insidious
attainments,
Letting blood for dominance and
possession
He grows up to become a
brute
Working with his
head,
And never his
heart
Proclaiming to be
strong
When he is weak
Enforcing
leadership,
Where he ought to
follow
With his inside overwhelmed from
without
The grave awaits him at his
prime
But he vomits his venoms into his
kind
Maintaining a self-bondage and
her woes
This is the journey that created
the road
The thoroughfare to
mankind.
Footnote:
Bio: Olumide Olaniyan is a masters candidate in Gender Studies at the University for Peace. He can be contacted at olumydes@yahoo.co.uk.
