Summon the gods
Bring me rubbles from Maisandari and Maiduguri
Let me build a monument to deities that mourn peace
deep within men drowning in the drunkenness of fear.
Here in the marker of havoc
let it sing of extinction, demolition, annihilation and obliteration

Bring me blood from Borno
Let me fill this trench like Elijah
with the liquidity of blasphemy.
Call down fire upon those who called trenches home
in this memory of war

Bring me bones from Baga
Let me strike a spark to my ancestors
Make a flute of hollow tendons
to mime morose melody for meandering spirits
I will split my heart on this altar
Send them as ravines to the gods
This life is a free gift that I desire no more!
Here god, take it back, take it all
Kill this foolish feeble feather-flight fellow
Then reincarnate me with
The will to go on
A heart of steel
And a thirst for home…

Addendum

Then I will summon the gods
For Baga’s blood speaks sadder things
Let heaven be closed to the souls
And hades to the spirit
of the waste of men responsible for this desolation
Let their wailing be puppets
To strings of anger
Against them that put us here.

This poem first appeared publicly in 2015, including at Loudthotz Poetry on 13 February 2015. The text published here follows the substantially revised version collected in Poetry Has All My Pain (First Edition, 2025).