The Freedom We Try For

Gunmen abduct school children
in Nigeria's Niger State.
Photo Courtesy: France24.com

Freedom's chains

Guarantee some things may never change

When we ride

We ride high

Trucking together in a pile

Like cattle shipping on a one-way train.

Constant thoughts of imminent derail

Hum like a sequined refrain

Reenacting the monsters we engage.

And tho we ought to be ashamed,

We're pointing fingers

Serving the next dude the blame.

The center can't wait out the teeter,

Seems we're at the end of our tether.

With one voice

We chant, 'One nation

Bound in freedom,'

Yet the copious maelstrom

That engulfs the federation

Can't hold a candle to Herod's dungeon.

Our freedom enslaves us

Exploiting our captivity

Within our own geographical radius,

It undermines the concept of unity:

We y'all a burden one to another,

Can't get off the other's shoulder.

We're the product of a glitch

Of a rambling colonial leech.

But it's time to put the past

Where it belongs: in the past.

That we'll be able to transform

The jangling discords of our nation

Into a beautiful symphony of brotherly compassion.

And run Nigeria, our country

Into the ground,

For good.

Or negotiate one final turnaround,

For me and for you.

Akpan