BRIDGE FOR BIRDS
Build me a bridge for birds
Flying forth
In wings carrying truth
The wind blessed carrier
Charting the course
For the oceans blessing their cross
Our ornate hearts leaping towards
Shapes formed heaven wards
Simple hopes
Ropes
With which we are hanged
Banged
By the mistrust paid
For by those who promises made
Bless the Benue
Our love cries
A collective voice rises
Changing down to up
Centring a top
For these new ones
Who this once
Carry our burdens
Feathers singly plucked by congruent sins
For humans they be
The small bridge to see
And cross
Not to drown…
Build us all now
A bridge before we fall down
A bridge for birds
Unto eternal aerial beds
(Published in the ANA Benue Collection, Bridge for Birds. Makurdi: Aboki Publishers, 2010.
RAM
It was a long night
But we waited all night long
And slowly when the camouflaged
Dusk left with the dark
Dawn appeared revealing
Agbadas in the umbrella
- Thrice and counting -
Leaving us, all, scorched.
Oga, na so we see am
But e do – next year, we no go be sallah ram[1].
2010
[1] (Nigerian Pidgin) That is the way we see it Sir/ It’s okay – we wouldn’t be Sallah ram (the ‘scape’ ram to be slaughtered) next year.
well done. hope to come back and leave a more educated comment here.
Mallam Su’eddie… Indeed you are a poet… I am wondering if there’s something like an ‘uneducated comment’
very well bro. when you talk about something based on its face value(subjective), whatever you say is uneducated just as an illiterate talking about a surgical process.
so since i have not broken down this poem yet and that makes my comment uneducated in all ramifications.
looking at this poem again, i perceive a tone of betrayal as the speaker calls for truth in the face of broken promises.
i’m still yet to see what the ‘BRIDGE’ alludes to…i do know its an allusion (perhaps the path to truth?) but then, i wonder why birds will need a bridge to cross over! you don put nylon for my eyes o.
i think i see the cloaked meaning in the RAM poem…am i correct to smell a political undertone?
in all, Oga Su’Eddie, you did very well with these poems and i’m glad i read it. will still go ahead and break the riddle so that i can say, like Soyinka’s Abiku,”i know the riddle of the palm kernel”
Hmm, Xikay, the vampire and teacher. Brother only to Raymond. I hail you. I feel your words deep and I must say @xikay, thank you very much for taking your time. You do a lot for Naija Stories…and give lots of us smiles…and frowns too, sometimes. Live long. May you be the squirrel not just in the riddle of literary littluns but in the whole palm kernel that is life.
@Idoko, you know say Xikay take style yab u ba? :) Thanks for the thumbs-up and all you stand for. You really are a friend and brother. Thank you.
Me Vampire? No worry, I dey come!
Amen to all ya prayers and NO NO NO i no yab oga Idoko o! if i wan yab persin, i go yab @raymond (with caution sha O_O)
You guys are so funny.
BTW, nice poems. @Sueddie how are you preparing for your forthcoming publications? Can we do anything to help?
cool, nice poem
a different taste from the norm.
Though I’m no poetry afficionado, I have to say, Very Professional Work here bro. Nice one.
@Raymond : Thanks…very much.
Good.
Good.
Nice one bro.
@Igwe @Seun @xikay: Thank you very much for the vote of confidence…Really means a lot. @Myne, sent you a message (on FB)…
@Anderson Paul: thank you Sir!!
Every comment here gives me reason to keep keeping on and doing it better and right…striving to keep getting your kind thoughts
and equally generous criticism when I stray. Thanks for everything.