The Gift Remains

I can see tomorrow

My eyes are drills that burrow

Deep to where days lay fallow

The research is thorough

And yet tomorrow never comes

I’m a man broken by sorrow

I’d lease it but none would borrow

I see war I see painted floods

I hear the sounds of rejoicing

I see shod feet running to war

I hear the flimsy choices

That perish thoughts of

Everlasting reunion

I see visions

Of fatal retribution

Like the coming of locusts

I reach out

With trembling hands

And get knocked down

Into sinking sand

I leap into the flames

Of the ravaged land

The gift remains

Akpan