F WE KILL the cock that crows
Who will now rouse the sun from sleep?
If we kill the bird that sings
Who will distil harmonies from the clouds?

Question i address to our people:
Question i address to the land:
Question i address to the world:
If they kill a star
Can they fashion another star?
People of our land,
Dogs may rule.
They cannot God!

JUMP INTO the the river
Creep into a hole
We are passing
The saviours are passing
Owners of the people are passing
Tax-eaters are passing

I saw locusts darkening the sky
I told the mongrels newly drunk on oil
I told them that I saw death at Afo market
That I tremble at what I saw with my two eyes
But they laughed

Yes I am mad
Do I own a motor car?
Do I sleep in a tall house?

I went to the city
Asked them to search for the black goat
Before sundown
There is no night in the city, they said
And they laughed at me

Mad I know I am mad
Do I shit on other people’s shit?
Do I shit in a bucket?
Tufia!
I shall not sell we-we in an aeroplane!

III
IN THE WAKE of the whirlwind
a woman stood in silence
beneath aborted telegraph wires
a woman in black
probing the avenue of ruins and giant grass
a woman in black
before the beheaded palms

the birds are singing again
singing home the exiles
the land is humming a dirge
humming home the fallen
the whirlwind is over
and the exiles return
but they have no shelter from the rains.

IV
A GREAT BATTLE is raging in my house
And I must go home

But the storm is strong on the sea
The wind of passion blows strong
And detracts

Still I see the light beckon
from the distant hill

There is a fierce battle raging in my house
And I cannot sleep.
Obiora Udechukwu