28/09/2020
A Dialogue with my Country
My Country:
Rain on me; not curse, for I'm your shelter
I housed your forefathers and mothers
Your name I bore, do you remember?
My cloth was perforated with your embers
You designed my image with your blood
Thou rude and thou underrated thy lord
Like a shield, I live to safe your warrior
But on me you splashed, blood and horror
Like a sleeping sea I used to be calm and meek
I fed thou on my onion, my leek and my milk
An ingrate you are, what did you pay in return?
From righteousness your souls had turned
I got starved of the rain of good words
My face was being turned from the world
To thy leaders, my hands have always plead
My mouth beacons him to be good to the people he leads
My sons thought I've long been cursed
But their veils have hidden what they've caused
They afflict blame on the king among them
They've forgotten there's no tree without phloem
That a man is always assigned with the helm
But millions of leaves build-up the elm
Sit and have your hands crossed, nay
Hearken to my words and everything I say
Raised your head up and pray
Pray I said, please pray.
Poet:
O ye, my dear nation
I've been in dateless slumber for you
I sojourn in the home of dream to cast
An evergreen future for you on later years.
I heard you wore gold. No wonder
Many a son you bore have their eyes on your n**e
Like a chameleon longing to devour its pray
They wish to have your gold tore and shared.
I heard the flood that kayaks your land is blood
A trade which rains cowries to your children's save
When the tears flow and the mortals fall. They
Get a free jaw like a trader with huge profit.
I heard your sons had sentenced knowledge
He was condemned to death for treason
Learning turns learner to an hardened prisoner
A prisoner with no certainty on morrow.
O ye, my dearest nation
Raise your voice and call your children into order
Or else your cloth shall suffer from there ember
O ye, my dearest nation.
- AH Bello