OLD SOLDIER NEVER DIES

 

When I hear hopeless denizens
Hooting like night owls
Perched on frail branches
Of smooth-bark Iroko trees
Begging life's support
From crevices of rocky tablets
Painted by your seductive brush
That only flowed to calm orgy nerves
Of frustrated trusts seeking justice

...
When yester memories

flashback ferried films

Of fresh bloody scenes
Of Eight Ogoni men
Tied to a stake
Before the firing squad
Of capital punishment
For a lost battle
To save a sick sickled portion
Of landed inheritance

...
When circular flows of
Tickling trials and persistent errors
Result in vicious circles of
Unending throes, time after time

...
When all of these events
Strike major chords again
Replaying infinite symphonies
Of discordant melodies-

...
I see again motion pictures
Of camouflaged zombies
Spraying metallic poison
From the hollow pit of
The white man's destructive invention;

...
I also see the undying dream
Of a dead-man yet living
Hanging on the pavilion of hope.

© Ema Zogie