Mma Mi

My Mama, the Deaconess Eka Akpan celebrates one more

year on God's Earth today. Happy Birthday Mma.

"Mma mi" (/hmm ma me/) is Ibibio for My Mama.

Love needed no reason,

To set me up with a special person;

Love’s only reason was love itself,

Mma, having you translates as blessed.

I’m gonna write my manger story on you;

A prose on how faithful love beat the odds.

Wise men found a star on the night of the first Yule,

Mma, you are that ancient star in human form.

You were my anchor when I stormed thro a fog,

Your voice was the oil that stilled my troubled sob,

No room in the inns Mma, your heart was my pod:

A tested refuge from the cattle of this cold sod.

Akpan

The Reason is Right

To give a gift that keeps on giving,

I make a move to keep my pen bleeding.

Until words slide off the page right thro the brain,

As your feelings bind and turn pain into gain.

And the season is ripe.

And the reason is right

To attack you with love this one mo’ time,

And drown your fears in joys of yuletide.

To translate a scene from my heart to paper,

I grope for words that’d flow much deeper.

That long after the paragraph is read,

The vibes will keep your feet sure on the ledge.

Akpan

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Childhood Christmas Wishlist

What if a grown up decides to ask Santa to fulfill all his childhood wishes?What if Santa were to grant these wishes in a literal sense as the kid this man was once conceived it and not in the light of the man the kid became?

      What do you suppose, would be the consequence of such an extraordinary treat?

Photo: masterfile.com

          I asked for it but this isn't exactly what I had in mind,

          Can you take it all back Santa, could you please, oblige?

          Mama's been dead a decade, Papa my entire life.

          I once asked that they live forever. Is that my crime?

          Ignore my childish wishes can you straddle that line?

          I can't stand ghosts, I detest spooks. Same goes for my wife.

          I wished Dad be here every Christmas but I switched sides.

          I'm immune to spirits but I will rather decline!

          

          Wait, was that MJ I saw walk into my bedroom?

          Man, did you have to bring him back too, what's up with you?

          I thought you was wise Santa. Couldn't you take a cue?

          There's my favorite childhood jacket, you brought it back, fool.

          I'm too big to wear it and how come it smells like goop?

          You shrunk my big Bro to a 12 year old man, that's cool.

          I'm gonna kick him around a bit until he's blue.

          But you didn't have to bring back nanny. She's so cruel.

          

          Santa, is that the dish I smashed on Christmas? Come on

          I thought we went over this. Mama got a new one.

          Check this out: My childhood toy collection. Man, you rock!

          And my complete Power Rangers set. Thanks, Santa Claus.

          You shouldn't have brought my dead cat. Makes me nervous.

          It's snowing under my bed, a wish you could ignore.

          My house's hooked to Santa's sleigh, I believe I can soar.

          I see the Chapel's rooftop it's top o' the world, mom!

          

          

          

          Akpan

Card #6: Wild Card ft. Joe

Joe

Do you remember me?

I sat upon your knees,

I wrote to you with childhood fantasies.

                             Joe,

                             Grown Up Christmas List

Childhood is like music heard in a dream;

Curtailed air played upon a single-reed woodwind.

But the Daylight chucks

The night perfumes of childhood

Like lawn furniture after a windstorm.

Here I stand, looking out on Memory.

He trundles in, old Reality in his wake and in full bloom.

Like nosy senile neighbors I wish would die soon

‘Cause nothing’s as tragicomic as a Christmas morning

You wake up to, to find you ain't the kid you used to be.

No more Christmas eve performance before a congregation;

Too big for the knees of Santa Claus.

Ha! Ha! What Santa Claus?

Your mental repertoire’s been rearranged by adult education.

This Christmas, if I could have one wish;

One moment to lust wistfully,

I’d ask one minute in the sneakers of the child I used to be.

Eneh

Card #5: Signature ft. Anita Baker

Anita Baker

Snowflakes in the air, there's

Carols everywhere

                   Anita Baker,

                   Christmas Time is Here

Dust settles on dry leaves.

Brown powder on every structure,

Dust, not snowflakes is the season’s signature.

It’s Nigeria, of course.

I’d like to paint you a picture.

Have you ever seen blood fleeing the face of a terrified man?

The whiteness left behind’s the door to December.

This is Nigeria, you’d recall.

As snowflakes tug frost,

The Harmattan hauls dust.

Both are reminders, something bigger than any of us is here,

And of the dreams we all share.

It’s one world, after all.

Eneh