NO ONE

No eyes, no dreams, no goals

No me, no us, no them

Sleeping dreamless

Wake up vision-less

Find a quality

Yet no name

The title of the day

Not face of tomorrow

Their say against mine

Your name hostile fame

The scream they hush

For identity not known

What is the title?

Why is he subtle?

Who do me rattle?

When i still grapple

Dog still nameless

Yet not blameless

While still faceless

Rend them speechless 

Only birds fly, not scattered feather

“Chaotic blur.
That is the best description i can give.
Detached from myself,
I watched the doctors
As they prodded and swabbed.
The nurses, they lingered and hugged.
The social workers, gave pamphlets and cards.
They said it will get easier.
They said i will get through it.
They said one day, it will be a distant memory.
They said i am strong.
But they didn't tell me,
I will beg in my dreams.
I will cry and plead.
Dreams so vivid you can almost taste the blood.
They didn't tell me i will feel him in me,
Years to come, in unwanted places.
They didn't tell me, i will jump at shadows.
I will see atrocities, everywhere i look.
They forgot to tell me,
The next time i am intimate with a man,
I will kick and scream.
I will panic and hyperventilate.
I will cry with my heart.
I will feel the pain in impossible places.
They forgot to tell me i will want the act,
But i will despise it with everything in me.
I will love with a ball of hate stuck in my gut
They all lied.
It never gets easier.
You never get over it.
It never fades away.
Strength feels like a burden.
Every memory feels like you are being torn in two.
From the outside in,
All over again.
Again and again. “


"There is a place in a place in a place;

Where kids are lucky to go to school.
Where majority just roam the streets.
Where kids are hawkers,
Victims to sexual predators.
There is a place in a place in a place;
Where girls are not as lucky about school.
Where rich old men literally buy them off.
Parents have 12 others depending on them,
One way or the other, they all have to get fed.
There is a place in a place in a place;
Where girls are married by 13,
Pregnant by 14,
Divorced by 15.
Life ruined, urine dribbling, and a child to her breast.
Where these same girls will be blamed for getting divorced.
These same girls will be left to fend for themselves.
These "children" now have children to raise.
Who are the leaders of tomorrow?
Half our population is made up of women,
The other half is raised by them.
The vicious cycle continues.
Can we wake up now?”

Dr. Sabeeha Hussain (SoulUnraveled) 

THE DARK SHIELDS MY SHAME

I don't feel the shame at nights, Since the dark pain, inflicted my damped soul,

Through his fingers trailing my thighs

Poking its way through the murky mess

Not from bleeding, but from heaviness

My heart can't hold, or shake off like the easy loss

of a stained white dress.

I don't recall it at all at day,

Since my voice, seem loss and frail

From the silent cry, screeched from fear,

 ladenned with threat, emboldened by death.

I died daily at his altar, where his cassock condemn my spirit to perpetual penance,

It's not the pulpit that accuses me of consent

The book didn't remember to judge me guilty.

It's his countenance that spurns my flesh to rile

With contempt for self, his sacred lips committed me to damnation

His lifted hands in righteous places, point me to my unholy sepulcher 

So, I live, yet dead to him, who feeds of my unholy temple to pleasure his anointed vessel every night in ungodly ways.

I learn to silent the demons by light, by wearing my solemn devotion,

With my nunnery garment, bidding my preachers will,

Waning my soulful dirge to mourn the memory, I choose to bury,

With each dawn, even as the ritual at dusk calls me early.

 When the sun rises, my shame fades.

When the moon walks, my will, my fear tames.

Again, tonight, shame died.

DO YOU REMEMBER?

Do You Sometimes pause to remember?

Does your heart think of me?

Does your heartbeat skip a beat?

Does it shiver and tremble at the memory of me?

Do you sometimes fall, pause and breathe just at the thought of me?

Does my memory cause your pulse to cease?

Your breath to freeze,

And your fears increase?

Do I make you wish yesterday never was,

Today always fun,

And tomorrow never come?

Do you remember me?

Does my name invoke you pain?

Blind with rage and make you tame?

Do I ever make you pale,

In spite of love you never gave?

Does my smile kiss you frail?

Break you in pieces and leave you plain?

Does my name speak of fame,

You abhor and crave and love to claim?

But couldn’t earn and so you hate,

Living a looser who breathes to blame.

Do I ever bring you memories of days,

Dawning in break, so lost in forgotten in lane?

Do you remember my hopeless hope

Of million pleas, wishing you were mine?

Dreaming you to turn to me, return my love

To make my night bright and fine, so much, with my might?

Praying, You want me then, to be your cross

Without a doubt, so long I was wrong?

Do you remember, my tears of loss

And walk of shame, for your love I war

So hard, that it was my curse?

Does your heart wish your faith was true and fair

For a love I give, in spite of you, or care from you

For many nights, so cold I was alone?

Do you remember?

TOMORROW

Tomorrow will be Benue 

where mothers cry
and babies grow
to behold the graves of fathers
that slept before they became
young men that did not father freedom.

Tomorrow is earth
that mourns her slain
that fears her faith
her fate and future.
Her festooned failure bloodied
by murderers.

Tomorrow is resurrection
of anger, of hatred, of seeds buried today
tomorrow is hateful and vengeful.
a dead seed is dangerous
tomorrow is dangerous
she will harvest these sorrows buried and forgotten in many folds.
but tomorrow comes with me,
I buried truth, peace and love. I will yield my increase.

Richard Abutu

There's a place

There’s a dark casting in my heart that leaves me lost

Each time I watch the last of your shadow fall, take a walk from me

It’s like you’ve been gone, but you remained to taunt me further

Reminding me that, you’re here, yet there.

There, that place I could never reach you, that far space where my thought travel

To visit you, hoping that you would recognize this shape you once knew

But, I could never reach you there.

There’s a dim light that dances in my eyes, when I see you show up

When the distance between us, isn’t measured by the last dreams

And the future wish, but, by the now acts, winning ovation from the pushers

You here, bringing a flicker of hope, with the almost, nearly and closely brush

From your presence, gifted me in your smile.

There’s a song in my mouth, I’m still learning to tune

From melodies, conjure through your heart beat, thumped from the rhythm only you make,

One clap here, a sound there, mixed from your goings and returns that leaves me lost for lyrics

To make the gyration last. Yet, when this dirge surfaces, you turn it into a loud cymbal

Tuned for you and I only, to dance and waltz, less I trip on this floor.

There’s a want, only you can meet, as much as I yearn to fill this void,

Left sunken from your exit, a hole left desolate, bereft of your touch, smell, smile or kiss.

And my daily dream has been, that I may know your breath again, learn the scent of you afresh

To pervade this depth lost and shrunk in endless want, yearning for you to see me.

Through the times, we’ve both shared, hoping the longing is mutual in our hearts.

There’s a place and time only you and I can live, only us can feel, only our hearts can tell.

LIFE

Trotted this beautiful plane

Like a damsel adorned in grace and petal of love

With a simmering sweetness on my face,

lighting up my world.

I've strutted and walked the pearly city of life,

making perfect silhouettes my body clad in life's rich satin

You see, this skin has felt velvety silk of the purest of Shea,

 buttered with the finest of oil, only the sun can outshine.

My eyes have sighted, beauty, hands luxury

and heart witnessed the deepest of kindness thereof.

But what I've never understood was curse,

 brought from walking alone not from lack of crowd,

 but from want of truth among the seekers of my time.

I must tell you, numbers don't make a meaning

when wind wades you through the waves of life's despair,

or forlorn faces nodding their shame of you.

You'll find they won't always matter,

 the ones chanting hurray will spurn in horror at once

 when coppers go crook, the honest keep hot

Life is fine and bright and could be dark and dim

when it turns to shadow from sparkling laughter

BURIED UNBURIED

 Death to the voice
 Kill the loud
 Hush the babel
 Less they gain power of their will


 They will against our will
 They take off our ability to dare
 Not even a dream is without transgression
 Our thoughts are met with avarice

 Shush them now, they say
 Stifle their power
 Silence their experience
 Less they snowball their might
 Our voices become yearning whispers

 We are not mere mortals
 A death to our voices is a birth to a million vent
 Our grave shall be the manure giving life to the seed
 That declare our will to win
 For each silence you make, a million voices you create

 We are the seed buried, yet alive
 The voices silenced, yet screaming loud
 We are the tomb, the foundation for all the resurrection you see.
 We are the unburied buried

 We rise for each death you kill

They will against our will
They take off our ability to dare
Not even a dream is without transgression
Our thoughts are met with avarice

Shush them now, they say
Stifle their power
Silence their experience
Less they snowball their might
Our voices become yearning whispers

But we are not mere mortals
A death to our voices is a birth to a million vent
Our grave shall be the manure giving life to the seed

that declare our will to win
For each silence you make, a million voices you create

We are the seed buried, yet alive
The voices silenced, yet screaming loud
We are the tomb, the foundation for all the resurrection you see.

We are the unburied buried

We rise for each death you kill

THUNDER

He calls me thunder.

That my roar sends panic to the mighty

When I strike, there is quake among the living

That my lighting causes tremble among the gods

That people shiver at the thought of my name.

He called me thunder

But I never struck twice

My flash never burnt the ones I love

It rather warms them like an ember

Soothing in the early morning harmattan.

He sails my storm easily

Yet he fears my wrath obviously

It could be the echo of my blast

That cause giants tumbling and stuttering

Signaling to him, he’s mere mortal where I growl

Maybe, it’s the fiery fire that sets their feet ablaze.

He insists my voice consumes the weak

Swallows the rustling of the impotent

My words don’t spit threat

It dares the monsters

It doesn’t appease tyrant, it torments their desperation

Bashing their might with brash bolt and brawn

Causing their heart to leap in fear

Making their strength fade in fright

But in my brashness

He says my roar is like a music to his ears

My rumble, peaceful lullaby to his heart

Yet, like a tornado I crushed his will to want another one

My lighting his delight has become

My riotous pace his pleasure

My turbulent noise his Eldorado

He calls me thunder and I howl in love

13

13 weren't the no of times my heart has fallen
13 is beyond the no of days we held on to us
13 is the date in the month, when a visitor is termed special
13 was the time when this visitor no longer counts
13, not the layers of mask concealing my pains
13, not the number of time, my heart panted for yours
having hours slow into seconds as I stayed crying,
as the loneliness became my unworthy companion.
It's the name of the period when
memory was a dark veil, rotten in my nailed shame
covering my pain, shielding my hurt.
Forgotten is the label of an era, riled up mentally
13 a moment begging for amnesia.

Emptiness fills me with so much despair
Making hollow this mighty heart fanfare
Swelling the pit of my pain with fear gripped so tight
Ecstatic, horror, crushed soul won't fight
Fallen giant, burnt spirit, lay in fear 
The gap left by unknown nightmare
Shaken voices not recognized despite
my wish and promises of dear.
Energy ebbing away from my broken hardware
Smile not taken in assured measure but fright
It's fast and slow, the push, my valour is loosing her air.

The anxiety knotting the valve of my heart.
This palpitation, beating, knocking constricting my breath.

Dear 13, dulling my mind, please mend my broken spirit,
Embalmed in shame, dying silently,
Lost, in this phase of a moment, exiled into pain.
Shattered in doubt, covered in fear, shoved in a state of emotional chaos
Shrouded in secret, Wallowing, burning, dread my might has lost.
They say time heals, I wish it doesn't exist.
They say time, makes all things alright
I prayed it warped me in time machine.
Where my past was more pleasant
I want the yesterday before 13th
I hope my day can get a pre-13th
Where the door stayed ajar, and love never left.
13 a date that left me in a daze

Dead Silent

It's dead silent here
I listened for the humming of the birds,
It was no where.
I longed for the chirping of the cricket, but they were long gone.
I could sing my own song,
But there would be no melody.
Write my own dirge,
But no one would cry.

The dead, are awake in a land others dread,
Yet, we wish they can tell us how to feel better here
It's the time that doesn't exist we seek.
Maybe, it's the tomorrow we don't know we want.
We could beg for the yonder to come, but we will never know we live in it.

My pain says, I'm still here.
Their stares tell me, I'm lonely still.
Not for another to cheer my mood,
Not for a voice to echo my wish.
But, from distance their eyes tell,
From pain, their silence thunder.

I could radio my heart beat.
I could sing me a lasting lullaby,
But, I know my dreams have become calmer than my waking.
So, I'm learning to live my misery, teaching me to accompany me.

If my quiet echoes noise
if my voice whisper fear
and my calm screams worry
don't fix this one, let it my teacher be
I'm embracing the pain for gain
accepting the shame as well.
the stops, loss and horror 
Is all I bear to win.

Our Tomorrow

You might wake up one  day and realize  the world  has actually  moved on.  oh well,  the world,  it keeps  moving,  it evolves, it changes and it refuses  to be stagnant.  You on the other hand,  you are stuck,  you refused  to evolve,  you feel overwhelmed  by the fast pace of everything and everyone  around  you.  At first,  you  tried to  convince yourself that  you don't  care,  you constantly remind yourself  of how happy you  are.  So,  you  refused to appraise the situation,  you couldn't  understand  the rush so you didn't  bother to try.

Guess what!  the world moved on anyways. It didn't  care whether  you were in it or not,  it just evolved without  your  permission.  Now,  you  ask why you?  why did everyone move on?  why  don't they care?  Oh well,  they care enough  to let you see them moving on.  They love you so much to let you hear people sing their praises and chant their victory. it was you who wouldn't listen nor take them serious. you were the one without care for tomorrow.

I know you said you were taking life easy. I know you mentioned those things are vain. but, You and I know the problems won't take care of itself. We both know, unless we move a muscle, dear, no one will break a sweat for us. So, while we bother less about tomorrow, worry no more about our challenges. We must be sure we have today care enough to last us for tomorrow. What we do not give attention to, will not get done.

We are first responsible to ourselves, before others. While we brag about our less care for tomorrow. Our bragging right should assure us enough for an extra day. 

NO WORDS

It's in the silence
Right there in the sound of our thoughts
It's in the quiet
Look in the air we exhale
Not because we no longer exist
Not even the angst could save us
It's is in the whom we have made of ourselves
The very being we have become

Been separate didn't ease our yearnings
A void the pegs couldn't square
Many a hole time couldn't fill
A vacuum unending in our search
The one piece matching the puzzle
The one cure for my sickness

Unfinished sentences were all I could ever make
I was an unquoted word
because the dot was missing
I remained an unlived dream, because you were my sleep
My one sure step to lala land
You are my vision
My one sure hope to winning

It's in our eyes
The story untold of fears and wishes
It's in our heart, the chapter written from the blood pound of our veins
You will find it in our voices
From the many tales our kisses tell
It's in who we are
From the many memories only us can reawaken

It's in our bond
the very chord binding our soul
You will find it in our ties
Woven in our spirit
Knitted with our blood
Knotted by love
Shaped into us


It's in the distance calling for us
Among the puzzle lost in our hearts
You will find it in the story untold from our character
It's right here in the end
We plotted from the beginning

THE FORBIDDEN

That I know you again
Find you ok
Want you always
Forbidden that my thump pumps your breath
My smile your smell

I'm charmed
I'm enchanted
Tangled in this web
Fallen in this well
Lost deep in your love

Shaken, tingling feeling
Flapping like  butterfly in my tummy
Dizzy mushy want
Craving you as you exhale your dreams into me
Through your kiss, your touch, your thrust and your love

I want to be your peace

I want to be your calm

I want to be your quiet

Let me calm your storm

Quieten your rage

Make peace with your demon

I am because you are

Look to the Rising Sun

From Jerusalem to Madina

To the land of those cursed with the idea of slave trade

down to Zaria, across Ekiti and the streets of Nnewi

Words were cast in iron,

on parchment of scrolls,

tablets of stone and the heart of those in search

of an identity, the essence of existence, the cradle of life, the omnipotent

of mountains molded before their forbearers were conceived

Battles were fought, allegiance pledged

Then from across the seas

with mirrors of deception, umbrellas of delusion, liquor and the holy books

masters found slaves and lands to covet

mission accomplished as colonials spread their intention over brotherhood

By hook or crook

slaves found their voice, freedom and a nation to call their own

Alas! Boundaries were marked with the same tool that buried brotherhood

along the boundary-lines

Masters sailed back home with spoils of colonization

Then unity was veiled beneath the scars of unhealed wounds and tribal marks

that will later tear them apart

Questions were asked, truth masked in vague answers to recurring questions

Yet unmasked in the dark corners of history, begging to be told…

Now close your eyes

imagine death and the vanity it heralds

imagine a country without boundary, bigotry, tribal rivalry

a nation where the knot of brotherhood is firmly tied

across land and sea

through unity of purpose of a people who see through clear waters of one identity

and the destination is not banished to the North, East, South, West

or some other region rounded-up in the confusion we call Middle-Belt

Answer the question or question the question

yet, questions without answers will give birth to more questions

or answers that will not quench the thirst of those who wonder

why there are no answers to those questions the federation says we dare not ask

forbidden questions like

why are we here?

what is the purpose of this union?

or why are we stuck in this Garden of Eden?

yet forbidden to think the answers we seek may be found in Ahiara

in the cracks of broken dreams of those resolute men

and the echoes of their declaration at the sight of the rising sun

The answers we seek may be found in the lineage of Arewa

from the Sultanate of Sokoto to the Emirate of Kano

or in the sacred town of Ile-Ife which they call the cradle of life

Perhaps the answers we seek may be found

in the strength of their confederate called Nigeria

Be at liberty to put a rope to my neck

drag me to the pages of her constitution, beaten to submission of individual intention

or shove down my throat, tasteless speeches of self-seeking freedom fighters

Before you put that rope

take a peep into the effort of founding fathers

who shed sweat and blood in the battle for freedom, equity and a nation

where equality will reign supreme

So, cut me lose and lighten my path with the lightening of Amadioha

to go East and tell of the dark cloud ahead

if we will not look away from the rising sun and unite with kindred on the other side

in this fight for one identity…

or look to the rising sun for inspiration and wisdom for emancipation

void of the drumbeat of war

Quicken my feet with the untamed speed of the horses at durbar

to head North and join their cavalry

in this battle for one identity

as the time has come to rise above the dust of tribalism, egotism and religion…

raised when we dug the pit deep enough to bury unity

Hand it to me, the axe of Sango

To strike a balance between self and others

Summon courage to swim the tides of tolerance

across Niger and Benue down to the West

to persuade Omo Oduduwa to unite with their kindred beyond the bridge

as we go head-to-head in this battle for one identity

Now open your eyes

look to the rising sun

maybe you too will find an inspiration

to halt the drumbeat of disintegration

By - Deji Ige

YOU ARE THE ONE

You are that secret that will never be told
The weapon that feeds his adulation
The pleasure that bears him pain
The fool wearing his badge
You are that story no one knows
The chapter never written
The character that died before it's existence
You are that one who never came
The joy he will never express
The shame he will never show
The weakness, he wouldn't admit
You are that one that stays in the dark
The one who could and should be the real one
The one who would never be

Yet, you are the one he wishes he had

THE REAL PIECE

He took a piece of me
Stole the piece that made me full
The piece suckled in touch
Magnet in kisses
Eyed off with the intensity of your gaze
 The seal he left was real and etch
Stamped with truth
 and mazed in love

You know you can't save me
Not the kumbaya
The roll and dance
Not even the memory 
Bearing the coat of your arm
No one but you can claim me
You tried to cure me
Without my elixir

You took that one
That made me none
The very her,  
The sole of me, 
The piece you have, 
It's the mystery piece
Linking me to you
The unclaimed one
Letting me stay for wish of ease
You have the me I’ll never get
Leaving me begging for bit of you

He told me we only have today
He showed me YOLO
He made me a moment
To last for eternity
He taught me not to sink
Helped me find my tick
Made me win my turf
To find my missing piece

You took the wheel
And set my sail
Guiding the change across the wind
Oh this boisterous sail
That blows my way
Has taken with him
 A piece of me


He asks to do,
Yet, I need him be, 
To be the whole that fills my piece,
 Be the part that never left, 
Hold the piece that stayed and wait,
 Be the piece I feel and need
But the best of me he took with him
He left with the exquisite piece
'cos He is the piece of me

LET ME TELL

Can I take this moment to say how I feel
Can I take this time and let you in on how much you mean to me
I could ask the stars to shine the light in the dark path, where doubt lies
Beg the moonlight to reflect the depth of my desire
I could ask the sun to warm the ice despair share
Let me take this moment

This moment when time stops
And years are made in our heartbeat
Fleeting seconds building decades of cherished remembrance
This moment when nothing exist 
Except love, feelings and passion
This moment where time exist only in your eyes.

Let me tell you about that one moment our eyes Locked,
With beaming smiles dancing around the curves of your lips. 
Forming a shape my heart swore was love
With our eyes telling the many cravings of longing for passion only our bodies can give
Let me tell you about that one moment
When you kissed me and erased my fears
With your tongue licking off my pains, 
Even as I moan to the taste of your pleasure

Let me tell you about this moment, when time is now,
Our touch a gift of you.
The sound of my name under your breath a luxury I've come to love, when you said with your mustered breath, my name, sealed with a kiss on my nose like the moon kissing the stars.

Let me tell you about that one stare that undresses me,
Taking me in and un-cladding my soul, baring my heart to the heat from the inferno of your deliberate touch and caress,
tracing the root of the fire you put in my being as you take me in ways only you can, as my thighs respond to the sway of your torso,
Heaving to the rise and fall of my boobs. While your fingers ravage this body.


Let me tell you about that one moment you loved me to submission, submission to your love.