Poetry

The poetry I write

Is not by right

But for the fight

I fight for the Light.

Revealed to me after I wrote “My Beloved Sister”

In memory of Ihuaku Patricia Amadi-Lane

Lagos, January 4, 2014

Where Do Loved Ones Go

Sleep from me,

Try as hard as I could,

Slipped away,

Exhaustion,

Again, smiled not

At me today;

Undreamt dreams,

Leaving my unanswered

Question,

“Where do loved ones go?”

As good as buried,

Without an option,

Ever seeing Ihuaku again,

Alas, dealt a death-blow.

My Beloved Sister

We held hands to bazaars at Saint Mary’s

As if ensuring nothing our bonding stifled;

Both of us little cared about doll babies,

But with whatever we had were satisfied.

The months rolled into years at Campbell,

We, in chivalry and truth, waxed strong;

Mom and dad made proud, happy parents

Who, among their peers envied became.

 

Although by an ocean separated in the end,

Our conversations were only moments away.

How could I my beloved sister incommunicado

Be considered just because death so decrees?

With every word I say, every move I make,

My undying love, prayers to ease her passage,

At the door-steps of heaven I shall daily lay,

Ihuaku’s gentle soul will rest in peace hoping.

 Lagos, January 4, 2014

Hearts Many Touched

Like a bolt out of the blue

Flew fear into my saddened heart;

Anguish, bottled in rage,

Like a genie waiting to exhale,

At fringes of my mind gnawed.

But although bad news all shattered,

My world out of sync spinning, I,

In pain, better imagined, writhing,

Solace, to me a window opened.

Condolences from far and near

Via electronic mails, calls flowed

And soon, buoyed on a river of hope,

I couldn’t but see the passing of a star.

When death its worst has done

In arrogance swaggering, dead drunk,

If those whose hearts Ihuaku touched

And, if truth be told, many they were,

A dirge to her gentle soul daily sing,

We who mourn can only but win.

Lagos, January 3, 2014