Poem #1283: Magartu Dedefi, Esq.

Magartu lost her sight as a toddler. At age eight,
she was forced to flee her home in Ethiopia.
She settled in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya
where she excels her peers in academics.
She dreams of becoming a lawyer.
Photo Courtesy: UNHCR

And still we see her rise

Walking on the sunshine

Her face lit up in a halo

That forecasts tomorrow

In live and living color

From war

To take the world

She blind

But she ain't no beggar

She looks just fine

And all set to be a lawyer

Her big dreams

Rattle the glass ceiling

She won't balk

In the face of competition

With her peers

Who ain't visually impaired

She lost her sight

But found the fight

For people deprived

Of their rights

As a platform to thrive

And her smile says it all

She knows she has it all

On her own terms

She wants it her way

No freebies, on equal terms

She'll rest her case.

Akpan

Poem #1282: Holodomor Legacy

Nursing Ukrainian mother victim
of Russian shelling.
Photo Courtesy: @Kateryna_Kruk (Twitter)

Starting with the Red Terror of 1918, Lenin and Stalin shared responsibility—by enforced famine, brutal imprisonment, mass killing, ethnic cleansing or assassination—for the deaths of some 20 million. (Coincidentally, Lenin and Stalin shared the same cook—the grandfather of current Russian President Vladimir Putin.) — Smithsonian

Your grandfather

Cooked for Lenin

Went further

To do for Stalin

Both Mass murderers

And Genocidal Twins

Along came Vladimir

To correct past sins

To shine the light down

And cut darkness like a shroud

Instead you and your boys

Trying to decide

Flashing lethal toys

You indulge genocide

To correct previous genocide

You know better, Putin

If you know grandpa's legacy

Remember Holodomor

And its inhumanity

Remember the perpetrator

Joseph Stalin

Creating artificial famine

Starving Ukrainians

To death

In Donetsk and Luhansk

They call it Hunger-death

Holodomor in Ukrainian

He filled that part

Of Ukraine with Russians

Now Vlad gone mad

Makes to claim

The very same

Parcel of land

In Ukraine

For Russia

Reliving your grandfather's

Evil genius Master's

Legacy ain't you

Get ready to lose

History will record you

On a list for fools.

Akpan

Poem #1281: Silence Of The Children

No change of clothes, no toys for the kids,
hiding in a room while war rages outside.
Photo Courtesy: Facebook/Newsweek

The clothes on their back

Emphasize their lack

And they can't go back

Stuck in some basement

In stack abasement

Men, women n' kids in

A den no bare necessities

In a room crowded out

War rages outside

Children hunker down

Uncertainty wracks each mind

No toys

To lighten the mood

No choice

But stay in the room

No noise

To get in the groove

Boredom

Contends with gloom

Bombs done

Increased the ruin

No fade to happy days

Wish that was the case

In a country

Where kids can't play

And run wild and free.

Akpan

Poem #1280: Crisis Rising

Seven years of war in Yemen and still no respite in sight.
Photo Courtesy: UNHCR

Seven years

Of depravity

An ocean of tears

Riven by famine

A land gone to hell

In a food basket

We forget to yell

Out casket after casket

From Yemen

Yeah men

War sprouts

Like stamen

We lost count

Of children

Starved to death

Hopelessly left

To die slow

Like a butterfly

Lured by ember glow

Distance blurs gory sights

As millions alive

Face same fate

That erased a wasted race

Love can revive

The deadest thing

And keep hope alive

If we let our hearts be

Led into an awakening

Of fiery empathy.

Akpan

Poem #1279: They Can Only Imagine

“I imagine in Syria, there are rainbows.” — Ahmed
has learned everything he knows about
Syria from his grandmother.
Almost 2.7 million Syrian refugee children
have grown up outside their country. — UNHCR

They can only imagine

And reignite the imagined

With colored pencils

And desks as their easels

They can only imagine

What home used to be

And tell gutted stories

With a child's crayon

Simple yet vivid imagery

Like painted sad songs

Ballads in graffiti

They can only imagine

Places of exotic beauty

From folktales

Woven by granny

Of epic power fails

And from memory unseen

They create tomorrow redeemed

They can only imagine

A heavy burden

All of a sudden

Shoved on their shoulder

A baton tossed over

How they bear it further

Is yet to be seen

We can only imagine.

Akpan

Poem #1278: Women Of Ukraine

Some Ukrainian women chose to stay and
fight alongside their men for their homeland.
This verse celebrates their valor.
Photo Courtesy: Facebook/The Daily Show

The women of Ukraine
Are women of valor
They can make it rain
When men need a favor
For better or worse
They excel them all
They heed the clarion call
Not one of them balks
They deal in lead
Just like they baked bread
When home was still home
They'll defend
Their own
Against a beast
To the last drop
Of blood n' resist
In their labor of love
For home n' country
As for the love of family
The women of Ukraine
Don't fear pain
Nor seek fame
Like clouds of gray
They were born to reign.

Akpan

Poem #1277: Vindicta

Ukrainian refugee child: Russian shelling killed her mother.
Photo Courtesy: UNHCR

In what world
Does deliberate murderous
Waste of innocent blood
Amount to progress in war
That is the recourse
Of a coward
Making a show of
Moving forward
Resorting to medieval tactics
It's basic mathematics
Your approach is antique
Your style is erratic
Shelling a mother
Handicapping the
Orphaned daughter
Your war trophy
Is carved from the ruins
Of medical facilities
City streets strewn
With civilian casualties
Your war strategy
Is piling up fatalities
Diagrams of a tragedy
Of unharmed personalities
That girl deserved better
And she's the open letter
Of inevitable vendetta
This ain't over
Until you paid back
Every bloody quarter.

Akpan

Poem #1276: When You Pray

When you pray

The words you say

Are not in vain

He moves mountains

Believe

You receive

And you will

Have it

When you pray

Be stable in your ways

Set your words on a tray

Present it to the Throne

Of Grace

Your Father knows

His own

When you pray

Look into His face

And His glory display

In all His array

Reach out and claim

A portion of the same

The violent take

It by faith.

Akpan

Poem 1275: Suddenly Refugees

This lady and her two month old baby, Andrii have
been forced to flee and have to start a new life as
 refugees because of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
Photo Courtesy: UNHCR

Suddenly
The sound of explosions
Pierced the still
And there was war
Suddenly
We were refugees
Struck by terror
Forced to flee
In the wake of blood,
Gore, my daughter
And me
We gathered some things
And fled we
Were suddenly
Refugees
Only yesterday
Our home was gay
Next to awake
In the still
To mayhem and shelling
Suddenly
We was on the run
Hauling Andrii
My newborn along
Knowing not
Where to go
But to just go
Suddenly
Reality hit us
Like the blinding
Corona of the sun 
On the beach,
We were refugees.

Akpan

Poem #1274: Of Your Dwelling

How lovely is Your dwelling place
I'll enter Your courts with praise
I will come just to see Your face
I will live for You all of my days.

Akpan

Poem #1273: That Name That Saves

I'm here to praise
That wonderful name
That richly saved
And absolutely erased
The weight of my shame.

Akpan 

Poem #1272: Commonsensikal

Putin bombed maternity hospital in Ukraine
with pregnant women and children still inside.
Photo Courtesy: Rush Hour/Facebook

Putin
Put in
Loads of bombs
To suck blood
Like a vampire
Vladimir
The modern day
Dracula
A total disgrace
Of a leader
Fear of America
Choked your jugular
And you retaliate
With lethal repercussions
You tossed a shoe nail
And you lost
The game
Built a military base
At the border
With Ukraine
You shoulda
Latvia
Estonia
Both joined NATO
And your react was zero
No offence
But common sense
Seems a little bit of luxury
For your specie.

Akpan

Poem #1271: Czar Bizarre

 

Photo Courtesy: UNHCR

Europe
Divided Africa
No bones
At a snap
Now they divided
On Ukraine
Undecided
On the stakes
While posterity
Takes notes
The inhumanity
Breaks a bone
Now we know
Why African leaders
Would go slow
At resolving matters
Their teachers
Taught them so
The first world war
The second also
Was all yours
Spawn in Europe
Ain't no bones
Get off the pot
Enough is enough
Give unto Czar
What is Czar's.

Akpan

Poem #1270: God Be Magnified

 

Russia's devastation of Ukraine
Photo Courtesy: Red Cross

Let all who seek You
Rejoice and be glad
In You
Let them be turned back
Who desire our hurt
Give all who love
Your salvation
A brave new song:
God be magnified
In the midst of war
Rush to deliver us
From those who lie
In wait for our lives
Pursue and overcome
Help us in a rush
Reward them with shame
And cause us
To escape
God be magnified
In our mortal life
We want to see
Your salvation
In the Land of the Living
You alone are God.
Akpan

Poem #1269: Battlecry

Photo Courtesy: newsweek.com

Let God arise

Let His enemies

Be scattered wide

Establish your will

Scatter the peoples

Who delight

In war like the ripples

Let all who hate

Peace flee

As before a plague

As wax melts before heat

As smoke driven away

By a hurricane

Let God

Our God

Make useless all

Weapons of war

To the fatherless

Be a Father

To the widow

A Defender

Comfort the home-

Less and be their Shelter

Let our God arise

In the power of His might.

Akpan

#1268: Never Again, Europe

Ukrainian children playing in the basement.
Photo Courtesy: UNICEF/Facebook

The Germans

Took Poland

And sparked

A world war

The Americans

Stalled an encore

And have taken Poland

Russia must be content

With Ukraine

Europe was silent

For Hitler

Again silent

With Russia

As they sack Ukraine

What happened

To 'Never Again?'

Who harkens

To save Ukraine

Just gon' stand by

And watch kids die

Europe's ideals

Are under siege

The entire continent

Faces heavy bombardment

Not from Russian bombs

The strength of your

Union is in the boiling pot

But history

Need not be relived

Confront the enemy

Make him feel the heat

Spit it to his face

Never Again!

Akpan