Ain't No Christmas For A Refugee

Courtesy: UNHCR

Ain't no Christmas for a refugee,

People would sooner pee on his effigy;

Ain't no chicken in any pot,

Ain't no sunshine in his dawn.

Ain't no Christmas for a refugee,

He'll always be the same OG

Who menfolk regard as an apology,

And the womenfolk await her elegy.

Ain't no Christmas for a refugee,

Ain't no record of their pedigree.

Ain't nobody gifts 'em nationality,

But they y'all denied their humanity.

Ain't no Christmas for a refugee;

Ain't nobody prepare 'em confetti,

Not even a slice of roasted turkey

Or leftover peanut butter sandwich.

But a refugee need

A certain measure of heat,

Something to keep 'em warm at nights;

Cause refugee rights are human rights.

Akpan

You Excel Them All

My Momma, Deaconess Eka Akpan celebrates her birthday today. Here's a tribute to her undying grace.
May all your hopes and dreams come true, Mma!

Updated: January 11, 2021 14:30

Charismatic Momma

Your touch is a special brew of eternal

Maternal ingenuity

Your Ibibio cuisine is legendary;

Each ingredient added on whispered prayer.

Many women have done virtuously,

Several mothers performed excellently

But how you came through for me consistently

Attests to your matchless grace,

The radiance you lavish

On all around you invokes seasoned praise.

Your hands have molded my path

Your affection resides within my heart.

The memory of my childhood records it well

The bond between mother and son is a spell.

Ain't it swell

That you have thrived

These three score and ten years plus

And proved that beauty never dies.

Countless women have been champions,

But you're more than a conqueror

That tells why you excel them all.

Akpan

Long Story Short

Courtesy: UNHCR

After all has been said and done

Like phantom tears from the heart of the sun,

The lust for war gives rise to refugees

Passion for bloodshed sprouts displaced persons.

After all that's said is the bomb

That empties Tigray into Sudan,

Then the slugs of a gun is enough

To send Shona scurrying to Kenya.

All that's said

And all that's done

Wakes the walking dead

And evokes a world undone;

People absolved of all feeling

Eat the heart of the living.

We bleed when they feel the need

To redeem the essence of their greed. 

Akpan

You Count

Happy Birthday to the world's greatest
refugee organisation. 
UNHCR70

Three score years straddling a decade

You've been in the business of making lemonade

From streams of tears of people on the downgrade;

Scathed twigs snatched from fires of war,

Minors plucked from the cliff of a crisis,

Outcasts fleeing the bias of discrimination.

For those holed up in waste lands, you build an oasis

And thrust into their hearts the gift of hope.

You've given countless beasts of no nation

An abiding identity and a home.

And several persons with no birth records

Are no longer mere faces in the crowd

Cause you make certain every strike counts.

The world's witnessing rising hostilities,

Over 80 million refugees and counting...

Yet you've stayed an anchor in troubled seas

A sturdy branch reaching out to a drowning man.

Wherever darkness covers the land,

You have held out a ray.

You've often believed, ” Everybody Counts.”

Now on your very own special day

Everybody declares, above all, that” You Count.”

Akpan

Final Wish

Gul Zahar, the 90 year old Rohingya refugee who
passed away recently in Kupalong refugee camp in
Bangladesh. She never lived to see her final wish of
returning to a peaceful Myanmar fulfilled.
This poem is to her memory.
Photo Courtesy: UNHCR

All of twenty five years,

Each moment racked by a spate of tears,

I've been betrayed by hope

Into thinking a lifetime of sorrow

Would bring forth a new tomorrow.

Myanmar, I wish I was your Genie

So I could clinch your soil

Once again, in the ball of my fist.

Hate would hear my voice and recoil,

And I will grant your seeds this final wish:

They will run away nevermore!

Now my soul returns to its Maker

My eyes unseeing the salvation of Myanmar.

My body expires after ninety years sojourn

In exile in the makeshift tents of Kupalong.

My one regret remains that lost final wish,

I missed my long walk to freedom and peace.

Akpan

Asylum

Nosizi is the first stateless Shona woman to go to university.
The Shona community have lived in Kenya
for three genetraions yet remain stateless.
Photo Courtesy: UNHCR

Have you ever had

To turn your back

On your home never ever have to look back

Until the distance between you two was far back

And the only memories of home you have

Was all dark and way back

Cause your misery was stark

Strung by the fact of your lack

And your mind is racked

The insanity is stacked

Like diamonds on Liberace packed

Up in his suite guarded by his pack

Have you ever had

To wake up in the dark

And reminisce about the past

You lost while your future's in the dark

Have you ever turned your back

Just to get whacked

Upside your head by a backstab

Ain't nobody there watching your back

No buddy wants to lend a hand

All they want to do is hack

You down to the hot slab

Man, you're stateless n' that's a fact

Tho they know you can't go back

Still they demand you depart

Have you ever had to part

With the sum of your parts

To trade it all for a harsh,

Undeserving, unwelcoming trash.

Hypocrites with snouts that bark

Who give you a runaround but cut no slack

Behind you you can still hear guns Klick-Klack

So you're stuck cause you can't go back.

Akpan

I Belong

Photo Courtesy: UNHCR
For all the beautiful people in those countries
working tirelessly to end statelessness.
On behalf of all refugees,
You're always welcome in all of our hearts.
Thank you!

Who did I tell

When ghosts of yesterday rang my bell? 

Who raised me up from hell?

Who broke me from my shell?

Who stripped me clean of the past

That hugged my bones like second skin?

Who ripped to shreds my robe of rags

And made me their very own next of kin?

Who but you wrapped me in your warmth?

When you made me believe that even I belong.

Akpan

Free To Ride

I have only one more desire 

After I wrest myself free of this fire

Free from care, I'll ride the throat of zephyr

Shoot my game into orbit and burn brighter.

Akpan

Verbal Venom

Words have a distinct taste

I found it's true cause I tasted of hate

Words spoken in rage filled haste 

Can make vengeful feud accelerate.

Akpan 

Up Everything

I gave up everything. For a lie

A million moments lost because of a lie

Suddenly, there's no one here to dry my eyes

Friends were all cons cause for constant sighs.

Akpan

Kitsa G.

The homely Greek lady who sheltered kids from
war-torn Syria in her home. The children fondly
call her, Kitsa Granny.
Photo Courtesy: UNHCR video

Can I call you Kitsa Granny?

Would I be a bother

If I wet your shoulder

With tears that make me shudder?

Will you push me until I swing high

And catch hope as it flutters like a butterfly?

Ring up war and say, 'Eat your shame!'

There's no home bests Kitsa Granny's embrace.

We have reasons to call you Granny

You're family we never knew we had

Blood that mended these broken shards

You've made us the sum of the part.

Akpan

Thought Spectrum

All I ever do is make you feel more of

My grief that it's making you a function

Of my self-gratifying thought spectrum.

Akpan

Say It Ain't

Courtesy: Pinterest

Do you have a freaking soul 

 But maybe even that is sold 

Lookit all the deed you sowed 

All of it and say it ain't so.

Akpan 

Strange Odyssey

Your donation today can help so many people who were already
suffering before COVID-19 and who need us now more than ever.
Click the image to donate.
Courtesy: United Nations Development Programme

Let me hold your hand

It'll be all I need to stand

I'm not one to make demands

Still I'll go with you to strange lands. 

Akpan 

Killer Current

 

Courtesy: webstockreview

Raw passion consumed by a fierce loyalty

An obsessive commitment to humanity

Deep like an underwater river with

A killer current that spurts from within. 

Akpan