This
City, perforated, is brash ruined,
Edifice of thunder rumble
And fallen clouds, torn
Rafters on deserted barns
Submitting to night Owl's songs
Of war. Drumbeats of darkness
Shredding it's iron-bridges apart
Into ghost IDP's latrines.
Bad
Smelling burning sulphur
Of human skulls re-uniting
Dark blood protruding veins.
Your children are silenced by
Tepid gun wounds, cholera and
Malarial smiles, Hungry
Swine eating their strength,
Stealing their youth in the
Very siren of livid policemen,
Livid on honour unwon that
Re-birth black days casked
In perfumed coffins.
Maiduguri awake from this night!
Let your sun
Shimmers in dust-ravaged faces.
___
Francis Annagu have been published or forthcoming on Potomac Review, Galway Review, Kalahari Review, Dead Snakes, Lunaris Review, Tuck Magazine, Bewildering Stories, Ancient Path Literary Magazine, Ayiba Magazine, Ann Arbo Review, The Commonline Journal, The Poet Community, Sunflower Collective, Amsterdam Quarterly, Ake Review, PIN, WRR, and others. He lives in Kaduna, Nigeria where he is working on his first poetry book.
City, perforated, is brash ruined,
Edifice of thunder rumble
And fallen clouds, torn
Rafters on deserted barns
Submitting to night Owl's songs
Of war. Drumbeats of darkness
Shredding it's iron-bridges apart
Into ghost IDP's latrines.
Bad
Smelling burning sulphur
Of human skulls re-uniting
Dark blood protruding veins.
Your children are silenced by
Tepid gun wounds, cholera and
Malarial smiles, Hungry
Swine eating their strength,
Stealing their youth in the
Very siren of livid policemen,
Livid on honour unwon that
Re-birth black days casked
In perfumed coffins.
Maiduguri awake from this night!
Let your sun
Shimmers in dust-ravaged faces.
___
Francis Annagu have been published or forthcoming on Potomac Review, Galway Review, Kalahari Review, Dead Snakes, Lunaris Review, Tuck Magazine, Bewildering Stories, Ancient Path Literary Magazine, Ayiba Magazine, Ann Arbo Review, The Commonline Journal, The Poet Community, Sunflower Collective, Amsterdam Quarterly, Ake Review, PIN, WRR, and others. He lives in Kaduna, Nigeria where he is working on his first poetry book.
