Day 30: One Nine Five

Photo Courtesy: Twitter: @biz-life lines

195!

Boko Haram your plot’s gone live.

I blew you out of the water

Might as well halt your mass slaughter.

Had to spread the message: ‘Pot is scum;’

So you blew up school kids in Potiskum,

Right?

So what’s the 411 on 195?

Could ‘5’ represent the month of May?

And the 19 be your anticipated doomsday?

Is your plan to copy the 1928 Mather Mine explosion?*

Where 195 miners out of 279 met their creator?

Gonna blow the 195 Chibok girls straight to oblivion?

Stage your final stand with rivers of innocent blood?

                                         

I know you’re up to something

And I don’t like sounding negative.

But I feel like I’ve done the math.

195 corresponds to, I think,

The sum total of NYC’s terror attacks

Since the incident of September eleven.**

They pitched the first Chibok escapees at fifty seven;***

That’s roughly the count of IED incidents in NYC.****

Did you plot the schoolgirls’ escape to begin with?

So you’ll give false hope to the many who believe?

But we’ll yield no quarter to defeat.

We are the champions of our destiny.

195

Would be the symbol of our triumphant fight.

Akpan

* The Mather Mine disaster refers to the events surrounding an explosion that occurred in the Mather Mine on May 19, 1928 in Mather, Pennsylvania.

** START’s Global Terrorism Data Base

*** Wikipedia

**** START’s Global Terrorism Data Base

Day 29: Heroic

Freiberg am Neckar, Afrikahaus, sculptures of concrete, 1986, by Aniedi Okon Akpan and Sunday Jack Akpan
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s about this size

Runs on twos and got eyes

On the prize fakes can’t grasp.

It’s got genuine intellect,

A commitment designed for the wasp,

A flaw lost to deliberate neglect.

It walks on the skies

With feet of the stars that shine

Thro the night of relapse.

It’s the heat of the moment

Peculiarities that strum on harps,

Its weakness is the bond of its strength.

It’s tight as it’s wide,

Got one head held up high

For what lies beyond victory;

It is inventive genius,

Heroic feats that just had to be.

A story forever glorious.

Akpan

Day 28: Flawed Release

UNLOCK THE DOOR QUICK^ - NARA - 515929
Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I had reasons for doing the things I did.

I didn’t know it then but now I see

Sometimes, things happen to unlock mysteries.

Often the flaws that trip us bring us release.

I had to keep going I could not quit

By any means necessary, I pulled thro.

But what is this lump I feel in my throat?

Is it a symptom of guilt or plain bull?

Should I ride my backtrail in slow mo?

I had ideas that could make the world roll.

But I had no means I lacked resources.

So I got creative and hit the road.

I struck a deal with fate but nemesis

Had issues with my methods and ethics.

I didn’t know what I know now back when.

I wonder if it would have made any difference.

Akpan

Day 27: One Moment

Azalea
Photo Credit: stumbleupon.com

Can I have one moment for all time?

One personal moment for a lifetime,

That space where I absorb all that’s mine,

Where all my purpose is duly aligned?

Can I have one second to treasure

The nameless beauties beyond measure?

My corner to cherish at leisure;

Can I get mine just for my pleasure?

Can I have one moment to exhale?

One magical moment to prevail,

That private place where distractions pale,

Where my identity is free to sail?

Can I have one lifetime to perfect

One moment in time and, connect

My soul with properties that reflect,

The image of the personality I covet?

Akpan

Day 26: Champ

President Buhari (Nigeria) with the 21 released Chibok girls
Photo Courtesy: Sahara Reporters

Shudda killed me when you had your chance.

Now I’m the champion of my circumstance.

The horrors I pulled thro made me stronger.

Who’s talking surviving when I’m thriving?

Head held up high I’m goal minding;

I have been scorched but it refined me,

I’ve been pressed down but it bought me victory,

I got the rage of a mother bear,

And for me impossible is a dare.

Shudda taken that shot but no mo,

The dragon unleashed let passion flow.

My vision’s clearer, art of war mastered,

You made my skin thicker than leather.

My heart’s learned to battle the weather.

I waded in the flood, walked thro the fire,

I shudda died when you had your chance.

I’m a tougher girl forged by my desire,

Guess I got potential that works only in champs.

Akpan

Day 25: Home for My Muse

Cabin in the Woods
Photo Courtesy: somewhere on the cyberspace

I was lonely.

But I had no use for companionship,

I wanted to be alone.

I wanted to find my muse an abode.

I knew I was going to get there

Just had to get out of public glare.

I was afraid.

I gave no brief to what it takes.

I wanted to taste passion.

I hungered for the waves of inspiration.

So I took pen to paper and carved

A tale on the page a real work of art.

Akpan

Day 24: Sometimes Cruel

The winter storm hits Za'atari camp housing Jordan / Syrian refugees
Photo Courtesy: UNHCR 

I have been held down before,

I’ve been shot into the sun,

And I know this much is true;

That fate can be sometimes cruel.

Love’s gutted me on spear points,

Hate’s held me to his bosom,

Yet I know this much is true;

That fate can be sometimes cruel.

Next time things might go better,

Now all I got is the bitter.

Cause I know this much is true;

That fate can be sometimes cruel.

I have wandered tho not lost;

I’ve forayed at personal cost,

So I know this much is true;

That fate can be sometimes cruel.

Akpan

Day 23: No Mo

Internally Displaced Kids
Photo Courtesy: UNHCR

Will there ever be peace?

Will we mend the broken piece?

Is there hope beyond this

Place of conceit and disease?

(Cause) We can’t go home no mo.

Death has never been timely.

We walked into it blindly.

Worked up our fears sublimely.

Now we treat doom resignedly.

(Cause) We can’t go home no mo.

Akpan

Day 22: Persons Living or Dead

Photo Courtesy: somewhere on the cyberspace

Similarities between persons living or dead

Is entirely coincidental but unheard.

Cause this is my life, not a work of fiction.

If the whole world’s a stage and we’re the actors,

I do my own stunts; I’m my own my own director,

I write my own script and craft my dialogue,

I live my fantasies and slay my dragons,

My dreamscapes, my visions; the setting, the scenes.

My goals are the juices that feed my pacing;

I am the main character in my story,

This is the life I lead, it is not fiction.

I dictate my reactions and resolutions.

Similarities between persons living or dead

Is something entirely unseen or unheard.

Akpan

Day 21: The Feeling Gets You

Sometimes, the feeling gets you.

And you get swept off your feet

And tossed on the face of the moon.

Sometimes, you plead for repeat

But the feeling will never come

Just because you demand for it.

The feeling answers to no one.

A genuine feeling is its own king

But when it gets to moving,

You just can’t fight the feeling.

The feeling is the truest oracle;

Feel it fizz through your follicle,

Taste the magic in the feeling.

There’s no logic to its dealing.

The feel of this feeling is

Filling the vacuum deep within.

This feeling got a hold on me

And I can’t but let it take me.

Akpan

Day 20: One Shine

Photo Courtesy: somewhere on cyberspace

I’ll dip the skies in orange glow,

Speak forth the articles of dawn;

I’ll wake the morning with my flow,

Roll back the dark side of the horizon.

I’ll pierce the clouds with fingers of light

Shot from my corner of the earth.

I’ll rip apart the shroud of night;

Break the day like palm kernel shell.

I can see things clearly now.

My joy flows totally out of bounds.

My hands have worked my waking

Into the new day I’m breaking,

I’m turning the rain to the drain.

Kneading pregnant clouds to change,

But I brought the sun into my night;

Traded several dusks for one shine.

Akpan

Day 19: Setbacks

Photo Courtesy: somewhere on the cyberspace

I know there are mistakes that must be made,

If a man must claim mastery of his game.

That’s why some things will never be the same;

Even if hell freezes over things change.

I’ll pick up the pieces and lay ‘em straight,

Fix each to its own piece, the road is strait.

Time I made my break away from this strain;

Gatto crack this zone things are turning strange.

I know there are stories I must rewrite

If faded glories could dare reignite.

I’ll stay on my grind and try for contrite.

I know what I’ll find may be wrong or right.

I’ll piece together the little setbacks

And hustle harder till I’m back on track.

This is my path home even tho it’s dark,

I’ll reset the tone and renew the spark.

Akpan

Day 18: Aint Broken

Photo Courtesy: somewhere on the cyberspace

If it aint broken, don’t try to fix it.

You try to gild the lily, you jinx it.

Take a lesson from life and six feet.

If you can’t make it, then don’t fake it.

If you can’t break it, you can’t take it.

Don’t hate it if you cannot dig it.

If you will surpass it, then face it.

You can’t refuse it till you tried it.

If you must judge it then, roll with it.

If you aint tried it, don’t wager on it.

If you can’t feel it, don’t hurt on it.

If you can’t imagine it, why want it?

If you aint venture, don’t think about it.

If you aint down on it, you miss on it.

If you don’t believe, don’t try to see it.

If you can’t be true to love, don’t share it.

If you can’t touch the sky don’t throw a fit.

If you can’t hold it down, don’t try to lock it.

If it aint stolen, don’t try to fetch it.

If it aint broken, don’t try to fix it.

Akpan

Day 17: Angle

Photo Courtesy: more-sky.com

It’s hard to comprehend

When you’re observing from a depth.

You lose perspective

When you judge from a tight angle.

You run without motive;

You lose focus your legs tangle.

The hardest things in life

Are the simplest things played for trite.

The sooner we realize,

The best we handle compromise.

And when you come to terms

With the reality inside of you—

Status update confirmed—

You’ll grasp all the truths to hold you.

Akpan

Day 16: The Other Half

That's me in primary school.
It's my birthday today!

 

I spent half of my life

Searching for who I am.

I’ll spent the rest of my time

Living it up to the max.

I’ve come too far up the road

To wanna lose out on the gold.

All the days of this life of mine

Ama pull through and make it shine.

It’s all I’ve ever asked.

Ama live till I’m tapped.

This life I am got me gone,

It is all that I stand for.

Akpan

Day 15: April 15

A mother reconciles with one of the 21 Chibok girls recently released
by Boko Haram. This poem is written in her POV.
Photo Courtesy: premiumtimesng.com

She touched me.

And brought me sweet release.

And o, the visions that lit my mind

Would make blind men despise sight.

She stepped out of bondage

On a will that matched the mileage,

She touched me and every cold feeling

Thawed like wax and I find I can still believe.

She touched me.

And those pained years are but one minute.

And my fears bled then ran along like a river;

My joys will overflow the banks of the Niger.

She’s made of steel,

A heart that’s dying to live;

All her parts bind because she believed—

That’s what I felt when she touched me.

She touched me.

And brought me sweet release.

And o, the visions that lit my mind

Would make blind men despise sight.

Akpan