Truth Like A Thief

In a time

When childhood expires

In the nighttime

In a time

When youth transpires

In war time

In a time like this

Morality's debriefed

And truth comes in like a thief

And makes away with the sheaves.

Akpan

Go For Gold

Gold accumulates mass

Than the heaviest of gas

Its glitter is first class

Its market value is a blast

Gold and gas

Are of a different class

All that glitters is not gold

And you can't hold on to gas

So I'd rather go for gold.

Akpan

Spread Of Rhyme

I'd like to lay my rhyme

On the bread of life

Like a flavored spread

Breath of the Divine

I'd like to sniff the scent

Of pregnant cadence

In Eden

Where words are eggs

Of the exotic garden

I'd like to fish for vowels

From the crystal river's bowels

And entice metric bees

Away from their honeycomb

And suck honey from Earth's womb.

Akpan

Homesome

Home

Is that bone

That sticks in your throat

Long after the meal is blown

Home

Is like the zone

It calls its own

Absorbed into the fold

Home

Is like chrome

On wheels of chrome

It goes wherever you go.

Akpan

All That Jive

I'm tryna retry the tries

I tried but couldn't bind

I arise to rerise

Reprisal rise and chime

I'll chance a glance

For dance and recompense

I strive to arrive at contrive

And thrive for all that jive.

Akpan

Shawls Of Rainbow

Like Sade Adu

Who saw the sweetest in taboos

Or like Maya Angelou

Flinging moon on shawls of rainbow

Or like feel good James Brown

Who ever knew he would now

I'm gon' hit words like booze

And kill off the weary blues.

Akpan

Early Grave

Dance into an early grave

You do, if you go for change

You rearrange your mindset

And your butt is marked for death

And there is no compromise

Only space for sacrifice

So it's either you're with it

Or jump headlong in the pit

Danger bulldozed a path for

Every soul on a mission.

Akpan

Sing Or Sink

I'll be along

You go ahead

I'll lift a song

On my dying breath

I'll sing down change

Into this waste

I'd rather sing

Than aptly sing.

Akpan

Live Indeed

I know you're going through

But Heaven's behind you

Lose sight of your burdens too

And let 'em grow wings to bear you

Look away from your spot

Look to hope from above

Look and live

My brother, live indeed. 

Akpan

True Specimen

Don't break stride

With the glory

Right before your eyes

Wake that scribe

Your story

Be ready to write

A cloud of witness

Wish you real goodness

Don't turn around

Don't soil that gown

You are made for this moment

Prove you are a true specimen.

Akpan

Rope For Fools

I know the ropes

That they give a fool enough

I have run my hands

Along its 3-fold spine

I've verified it's a hangman's

Noose woven with thicker twine

I know the ropes

That dehydrate hopes

But fools will hang

And damn the pangs.

Akpan

Take This Grace

Take this grace

And may it be your carapace

And fortify your pace

Take this faith

And therewith maneuver fate

Through waste lands

To a spring of bubbling fountain

Take this prayer

And may it be a barrier

That shuts in your eureka!

Akpan

Jericho Walls

I am the shout

That brought down

The walls of Jericho

I am the crowd

That stomped out

Their bloated ego

I am the pride

That stoops to conquer

I am the stride

That found the well of living waters.

Akpan

Holed Up

It's a fine line

Between a keyhole

And a peephole

So if you find yourself holed

You best define your hole.

Akpan

Frightening, Threatening, Lightning

I'm not threatening you

I'm like frightening to you

I pack the goods

I'm more like lightning renewed

Get a clue

Cause I'm brightening the mood

And if you're new

To this school

I'm in the bidnez of enlightening fools

So don't touch my tools

Or I'm tightening the noose.

Akpan

The Key To Damnation

Never fall in love with your dreams

Cause they'll fade away like wisps

Of smoke

And your hopes will go up in smoke

Never fall in love

With things you can feel

But cannot touch

Cause those stuff ain't real

They don't amount to much

Never fall in love with imagination

That is the key to your damnation.

Akpan

Gardens Of Fine Lines

Ama write a lil' poem
Speak of strange seas
Lines drawn in requiem
And fervently thriving reeds
Speak of simple things
In strange tongues
Private sins
Measured in furlongs
Speak of jive
And tribes
And gardens of fine lines.

Akpan

Walk You Through Hell

I'd walk you through hell
And climb down a well
If my fate you spell
No need to pretend
I will be your friend
If you blend my end
May I come with you
Where the skies are blue
And the path is true. 

Akpan

Potiskum Survivor

For the survivors of the Potiskum elementary school attacks.
What happens to kids who witness kids
get blown up by terrorists? How do they sleep at night?

Let's close the chasm
Of distance
With the chiasm
Of present instance
Let's make an Odyssey
To the lil' town of Potiskum
Like Odysseus who blasphemed
We seem to have lost compassion
For the witnesses of an onslaught
Trauma of kids wasted by bombs aside
What about child witnesses whose eyes
And minds will never forget the business?
How do they live with themselves?
When do they forgive themselves
So they may step out of their shells?
Do they still see the bombs when they close their eyes?
Do dreams of roasting friends haunt their nights?

Akpan

Song Of My Soul

Never gonna give you up
You are the stairs to the top
Never gonna let you down
You are insurance on ground
Never gonna let you fall
You are the light of my sun
Never gonna let you go
You are the song of my soul. 

Akpan

I'll Understand

I'll understand
If you turn rogue
And make your stand
Downside of the road
Sure I'll understand
It's what this world has come to
But still I'll take your hand
If you'll hold mine too. 

Akpan

Tree In The Seed

The tree breathes in the seed
And then the seed dies
And then the seed breeds
And sprouts a brand new life
Death is a practical phase of life
And life is a reward of death
And the two parallel paths
Go together and complement. 

Akpan

Pleasures Due

Stretch out your hands
And love will fill it
With gifts from distant lands
If you only believe
Reach for the sun
And love will wrap you
In its healing warmth
With pleasures due.

Akpan

By The Miraculous

Nobody knows
The trouble I've seen
Silver nor gold
Won't earn you a peek
If truth is told
I'm all for glory
I'm being transformed
By the miraculous. 

Akpan

Dilemma Knows My Name

Dilemma knows my name
Darkness knows my shame
The stars count the scars
And list them by their spark
Hatred knows my face
My face knows disgrace
The rains drown the game
My fingers pointing blame
Legend carves my tale
Fable spread the page
Torn out from the spine
Naked in the moonlight. 

Akpan

Museum Of War Crimes

Let's drive uptown
To the museum of war crimes
See what's been going down
Through the years
See if we can by it measure
The root of our fears
Let's take a walk
Down the street
Just around the corner
See who we'll meet
If we'll find a murder.

Akpan

Silver n' Gold

Silver n' gold have I much
But fools will not trade in such
They prefer purchase of blood
And demand payments in gore
Silver n' gold
If truth be told
Are rewards won for bets
By the highest number of deaths. 

Akpan

The Box

We come of age
And open the box carefully
Expecting it to explode in our face
We grow dreadfully
And then we grow in grace
We understand it's a race
And even though you help someone
Along the way
You're the only one
Who can finish your race
So you keep going
Sometimes you're crawling
But by all means
You keep going
And then life happens to us
And we hand back the box.

Akpan

Hyperbole

Hyperboles drop
From the tip of my tongue
School girls so teenaged
They should be gangraped
It's as impossible as for a child
Being the victim of an airstrike
Photos of displaced persons
As skinny as a toothpick
A demonstration so peaceful
Springing nationwide bloodshed in bowlfuls
And our chances of world peace
Is as grim as black coffee
From seeing too much of this world
My eyes hurt so much they're going to drop off.

Akpan

Goodbye Sad Songs

Goodbye to sad songs
Cha cha now so long
Hello to feel good
Music how d'you do?
I ride the soul train
Slide down glory way
Adieu sad moments
Hope hell's convenient. 

Akpan

Hell-O

Hello
Will mend a fellow
Broken yet fallow
And dig up the shallow

Hello
Will glow a shadow
And snatch a sparrow
Chased by an arrow

Hello
Lights up an halo
Come, share my pillow
Let's ride the meadow. 

Akpan

I Have Roamed Other Worlds

I have
Roamed other worlds before
I have
Stumbled on stones unseen herefor
I have
Walked blinded into concrete walls
And because I had a mound of ambition
I have
Spoken to death silence
I have
Received my reply in silence
I have
Trod forbidden lines
And came off grasping spikes
I have
Seen things
Man is not permitted to see
My vision has been weaned
I am a man of
I do not know what
Yet I'm a man after all. 

Akpan

Poetry Is

Poetry is
When feelings
Lay siege on the mind
And spin forth lines
To enshrined that mind

Poetry is
Feels expressing mysteries
Spoken or unspoken
Yet beyond reasoning

Poetry is
Translating the Divine
Through limited mortal eyes

Poetry is
Redesigning life
Digging for new life
Larger than life

Poetry is feeling
Feeling is healing.

Akpan

Love Is A Chemical Formula

Don't fall into love
Unless you back a parachute
Cause love is no longer love
But a boundless chasmic tube
This time love
Is not from above
But a mad alchemist's potion
Love is an empirical formula
A superficial alien vernacular. 

Akpan

A Wig Of White Clouds

The years wear a wig of white clouds
Riding the back trail of glory
Fervently pursued by death shrouds
Breaking out in agony
Throttling black clouds for tears
Squeezing man's heart for fears.

Akpan

Tryna

Never tryna be someone else
Now am tryna make different
It's time ama tryna be reference
Tryna be revenant
I'm tryna make an entrance
I'm tryna dig deep
Peel the skin off my seas
And tryna see a reflection of me
Whatever that may be
Tryna make mystery
Resolve a mystery. 

Akpan

Dilemma Of A Child

Dangling on threads of life;
Dilemma of a lil' child
In this age n' time
Nobody knows
And none cares for their tomorrows
Nobody feels their sorrows
You know they're here
You care not where
I wonder now how exactly they fare. 

Akpan

Time Is Now

Now is the time
I make this line
Respeak with vowels
That douse heat like
Wet towels

Now is the time
I get my shuttle
And break this hurdle
And create unique
From hardcore antique

I need no one to understand
All I need is make a stand

But I know now is the time
That ama pass this by. 

Akpan

Do What You Do

How do you do what you do?

Stand around and watch you too
It's amazing
How you knock me
Off my feet
Your faintest smile
Is a world class feat
I can't even surmise
I'm sprung in defeat. 

Akpan

Till Kingdoms Fall

Till kingdoms fall
Your wheel rolls on
You flash your guns
And toss your bombs
We are rams for the sacrifice
From youths to genocide
We have come
Like a sanctified throng
The whole lot of us
Use us for target ducks
Till all kingdoms fall
Thy will be done. 

Akpan

Egonomics

Ego
Is like an egg
Or like Humpty Dumpty
Easy to wreck
Harder to put in one piece

Ego
Will sit you on the wall
That goes before the fall
And it will get you so far
Before you land face down in mudflat.

Akpan

Songs Of Sheba

Look me in my eye
And tell me about light-
Skinned Ethiopians
And ancient Egyptians
Tell me tales of
The fallen kingdoms
Of Africa
Sing me songs of Sheba
Of explorer Queens
Who brought Africa
To the East
And the Ethiopian eunuch
Who knocked fiction
Off its high horse.

Akpan

Rusty Razor

Death and its train
Have a new name
Mere words can't explain
It's in the splattered brain
Of the face with no name
It's the minced membrane
Of the blown up slain
Death gave its train
Rusty razor blades

Akpan

Go! Walk Through The Land

Go! Walk through the length

And breadth of the land

You are Abraham

And your promise stands

High above ancient towers

Filling you with powers

If you believe

You will truly live.

Akpan

In This Place

In this place
We paint gay
A different shade
If you can relate
It's rule for the game
With joy and laughter
Pour oil on the waters.

Akpan

Don't Ask Why

Don't ask why
Sometimes tears fall through the sky
Trailing the beam of the sunlight
Don't ask why

Don't ask why
Sometimes an angel kindles your spark
Or they stab you in the dark
Just don't ask why

Don't ask why
Sometimes folks give you a smile
Sometimes feelings a mile wide
Don't ask why

Don't ask why
Sometimes life gives you blessings
Other times you get hard lessons
Don't ask why

Don't ask why
Sometimes you get a gentle push
Many times, your butt hits the bush
Just don't ask why.

Akpan

Wandering Eye

Be careful of the Wandering Eye
Be careful and don't bathe an eye
It's searching for the idle mind
And makes to corrupt your life
If you ain't figured who you are
The Eye is gonna dim your spark
It's everywhere
Nobody really knows where
It is not
You gatto take care
Or you'll be the one
Who was and who is not
Be wary of the Wandering Eye
Be careful for your mortal life.

Akpan

Dead To The World

You see
The thing about being lame is
You lost what the lay of the land is
Cause there's none can help you
Nobody but nobody but you
You ain't got rhythm
Only vain misgivings
So if you wanna be lame
Hold down your game
You see nobody's gon' help you
If you rebutting the help too/
Lame is lame
As game is game
Ain't no two-way about it
Ain't no need to shout it.

Akpan

Playing Hero

It's the same song
You folks are playing dumb
Playing hero
Won't make you a hero
You gatto get it straight
In your heart
Make sifting the trend
Your art
This is basics, the byline
Get the upshot, the bottom line
You know, when the going gets tough
You need to get your goings on
Ain't no time to gruff
But only time to grow up
You need to shift gears
Check your rear
And charge down the bear
Take living as a career
Make it an art
And that's a start.

Akpan

All You Got

Is that all you got?
And you call that a shot
Man that suck
I need something tough
A drill whose tip is diamond
One that cuts faceted rocks
Out of something rough
I don't need mock shocks
I'm done with baby talks
I need to set the record straight
I really need that hero trait
I wanna rise up
And shape confidence from
The build-up
So ama get out
Cause I come through with a shout
So if that's all you got
Best get out of Dodge.

Akpan

Zero My Position

If I buy time
Put my butt on the line
Drink up sunshine
With a hint of lime
How could I
Not be the type
Of mind
That crucifies the I
I know this slides
Just like rhyme
But I'm done with grime
I gatto reach out and,
And be somebody
I mean take this nobody
Walk down to the graveyard
Shove it in six dark feet
The whole nine yards
I need to make a man a man
Stand up straight
And stare life in the face.

Akpan

Defusing Danger

What people call danger
Is your fear
Playing manager
Of your affairs
In life, you learn to take things...
You have to judge things
By what you want
Or how you want
Things to be
You must see through
The interpretation of circumstance
Decode the circumstance in interpretation
You prepare that table
Before your enemy
You define the structure of the table
Don't give it to the enemy
Life is what you make it
Through your eyes
Not through another's eyes
It's that simple
Like a pimple.

Akpan

Just Try

I should try
And make something
Out of this life of mine
Just struggle
Beyond this big hurdle
I should make something
Out of nothing
It's fascinating
Just thinking
Just wanting
I should learn to cry
Crocodile tears
It might chase away
The mock fears
Just try
I should just try
If only I could just try...

It might make things right

Akpan

Hold

Hold on never let go
I've heard it said
From the word go
What if life jacks you up
Hacks you up
Packs you up
And ships you off
To kingdom come?
Sometimes what you heard
Doesn't make sense
When things hit a head
What you got is sense
Don't look back
Cause there's no helping hand
Reaching out to hold you
You only got you
If you can read a dream 
So you hold on
Even when you feel
Your hope is done

Akpan

Take One

Take things one at a time

So I was told before my time

Since then I been taking

Things and never have to look back

Is this the life I was

Molded for?

The life I was

Meant to run

And get crowned for?

Taking never giving back

Giving never asking back

Living ne'er expecting to die

And if I should meet death

To never bother 'bout asking whywhy?

Akpan