Like Mama

Happy Birthday, Mma!

How I love to love

The love that raised a stud.

Mama’s gentle hands gave me a rub

Yeah, her laps were my first tub.

I walked through a valley dug by fear,

Mama was true like a love waiting there,

With arms opened wide she did me bear.

Hushed my sighs and mopped up my baby tear.

Passionate, compassionate, she thrives on it;

My Shelter, my Teacher, my Fair-Weather.

She made me a best-selling story

Ain’t nobody showed me love like mama.

In sickness and in stress mama

Felt my affliction, shared my blues.

Her breasts totally nourished this brother

Ain’t no one could be faithful like mama.

I know the storms still will rant and rave,

Just the thought of her will be my guarantee.

If I can't hold back the rain

Still I'll stand strong just listening to a memory.

Passionate, compassionate, she thrives on it;

My Shelter, my Teacher, my Fair-Weather.

She made me a best-selling story

Ain’t nobody showed me love like mama.

Eneh

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Top Ten Things That Terrorize

THE TOP TEN COUNTDOWN 

10. STAGE FRIGHT –

This group would include speaking/performing in public; interacting with new people and other related stuff involving a large group people. A lot of folks are terrified to be under public scrutiny which is practically what it feels like to be up, front and center performing in public.

9. BETRAYAL/DISAPPOINTMENT/RESENTMENT –

I lumped this trio together because I suppose, in a queer kind of way, they’re related. They are all items you can tick off your finger as relations-oriented issues. People disappoint on a daily basis and though we wrap ourselves up in protective shells, we still get hurt. We walk into relationships half-expecting that in the next second we’ll be sweeping shattered pieces of our hearts off the floor with a dustpan and broom. This is basically, a fear of commitment.

8. HEIGHTS/DEPTHS/ENCLOSED SPACES –

They belong to a category of specific phobias, called space and motion discomfort. - Wikipedia

Fear of height probably includes fear of flying. And fear of depths could be further split into two;

1. The fear of volumes with large depths such as stairways and deep caves.

2. The fear of depths

- Wikipedia

7. ADOLESCENCE/PUBERTY (GROWING UP) –

Fear of growing up and fear of being displaced in your parents’ lives. Many of us had this fear and some never get over it, even though, the extreme case is what we’re really discussing. I once read some place where someone stated they were scared of growing up and their parents dying. This is another way to present this phobia.

6. ANIMALS/OTHER CREATURES –

Spiders, dogs, mice/rats, cats and the likes, and of course, snakes and sharks. Stephen King said he can stand snakes but is terrified by spiders! Fear is a mystery and it continues to baffle us through all generations.

5. THE DARK –

The dark throws a scare into millions of people (especially children?). In the dark is when our deepest fears grow talons and come out to play. Loneliness, depression, nightmares and of course, freaks and psychos wield their greatest horror in the dark. And so, people tend to see evil in every shadow.

4. STRANGERS/OTHER PEOPLE –

Roland Poppo is now a famous name across the internet as the homeless guy who got his face chewed off by a stranger. In matter of fact, we are much more terrified if the adversary is a thinking, calculating being. If he is one of us. A human can see into our thoughts and read our every move, which makes psychos more terrifying than uncalculating wild beasts. Fear of foreigners or strange people comes out when we are under stress.

3. THE UNKNOWN –

If the first rule of warfare is know your enemy, then not knowing who or what you’re up against tips the scale. People are afraid of entering and exploring a new ground, because they think they might get in trouble. They are afraid of losing what they already have by jumping into the unknown.

2. DEATH –

Everybody dies, eventually. Yeah, but I aint afraid to die, just trying to make sure I get it right. The fear of death is pervasive in a world where millions of lives can disintegrate at the touch of a button. Terrorists aint helping matters, either. But death is not (in my opinion, anyway and this is backed up by some research) the most fearful thing which is why I placed it in the number 2 spot.

1. FAILURE –

Why do you suppose the rate of suicide has tripled in recent years?

I just finished reading ROADWORK by Stephen King. Although, King doesn’t come right out to state it in black and white, Bart Dawes, the main character in the story offed himself because he saw himself as a failure.

First, he fails to secure a new place for his laundry company (on purpose) and threw away his job;

Secondly, his wife leaves him (in consequence of the fact that he failed to secure a new apartment for them. Again, on purpose.) and

Third, because he wouldn’t exhume the body of his son (who had died a few months before of a brain tumor) and rebury him (an ongoing road construction had forced him to relocate) he blew his apartment to hell taking himself along for the bumpy ride.

Nothing takes the sweetness out your mouth as not being able to discover the hidden you in a severely distracted universe. If you lose sight of yourself, death is only child’s play.

WHAT TRIGGERS YOUR DEMONS?

Without a doubt, this countdown would be different if you had done it. Failure is my number one and only fear cause I believe nothing is as fatal (not even death) as the unfulfilled life. And that’s probably, the reason I always see success as the sweetest revenge.

. . . AND HOW THE WRITER CAN THRIVE ON ‘EM

Check out this week’s edition of the New York Times Bestseller list and try to see how many of the story plots are triggered by any one of these fears.

As a writer, you can tailor your character’s pitfalls around one or four of these. You can be sure your story would appeal to someone out there. Bull's eye, mama!

Let your pen bleed!

Akpan

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Glass Ceiling

I count the varied blessings

Dealt out through the lessons,

I subtract the pain

To perceive the drama lessens.

The gutter runs riot of rustics

And phonies spread us dry like raisins.

They claim we transgressing

But the tragedy’s there ain’t no one addressing

The hell we all living

Through. We thriving and we weeded

Time to heal and we all illin’

Time to eat and no one’s feeding.

Young ones are screaming

And nobody’s heeding.

They’re hurt and they’re bleeding,

Open sores and injuries

All over their bodies.

On bended knees, we’re praying

But our situation’s dramatic irony.

Our rejoicing is elegy

Picture us in the ministry of poverty.

But sincerely,

None of us is tripping.

My courage will build up my entity,

Create a paradise in this Hades’ territory.

Like an inner mystery

Evolving independently

To breathe a new reality

Into a personal niche.

I’ll find ways to put my talent to use eternally.

I’m doing it mentally,

If you can’t picture me, physically.

Until I bring change to the community,

Paste eternity up in the range of society.

As an agent of ingenuity,

Preacher of individuality,

Victim of animosity,

Subject of controversy,

And a staunch disciple of originality.

Always sought an opportunity to be me

Now that I have the prerogative,

I’m through procrastinating,

I’m done with all this hating,

I’m busting through the glass ceiling.

Akpan

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Sick n' Tired

Sick n’ tired of being the joke,

Sick n’ tired of being the voice reduced to a stutter.

I’m sick n’ tired of being sick n’ tired:

I’m sick n’ tired of being told to step aside

While they mortalize

My dreams and aspirations before my eyes.

I’m sick n’ tired of watching from the sidelines

While premature gladiators claim the high prize.

I’m sick n’ tired of being afraid of tomorrow.

I’m sick n’ tired of holding it down solo;

I gatto make a break

Cause I’m sick n’ tired of being the mistake.

I am sick n’ tired of whining;

Sick n’ tired of crying;

Sick n’ tired of not tryin’.

I’m sick of unwinning;

Tired of failing;

Sick of falling;

Tired of stalling.

I’m sick of society’s ills making me sick

That I’m getting all tired out for being so sick.

I’m sick n’ tired of all this down-talking.

I’m so sick of it I’m gonna start walking.

I’m sick n’ tired of all this hating;

I’m sick n’ tired of all this playing;

I’m sick of picking up the rear in the pick up line,

I’m sick n’ tired I gatto git mine.

I’m sick n’ tired working my butt raw for nuthin’

I’m sick n’ tired of peanuts for a genuine thang.

I’m sick n’ tired of being pushed to the wall;

I’m sick n’ tired the hell it’s last straw.

I’m sick n’ tired of the tooth-fairy

I’m tired n’ talk-wary.

I’m sick n’ tired of living a fairytale

While reality sips cocktail.

I’m death sick of time and chance

It’s high time I made that advance

Cause I’m tired of living under the circumstance.

I’m tired of being the solitary reaper

Of the entire hood’s wild oats;

I’m sick n’ tired of the damn dilemma,

I’m sick n’ peeved n’ tired n’ fed up of being life’s scapegoat.

I’m sick n’ tired of people staring at me like what’s he all about?

I’m sick n’ tired of all this mess;

I’m sick n’ tired of this stress.

So, I’m done with failing,

Paths divided, I set sail off the shores of hard luck.

I’m headed east to the land of the sun.

I’m sick of stallin’

Set my gear in motion

I’m about to walk the Atlantic Ocean.

I’m sick n’ tired of waitin’

I’m throwin’ caution to the wind;

Making my debut.

I’m tired being bedfellows with regret.

I equip myself with mental kung fu;

Set my radar n’ pump the acceleration;

Play my position;

Align my locus.

Am I sick n’ tired of idling.

I’m going to take a walk, right?

The crows just lost their roosting spot.

I’m a be the light

Gatto let you in on it, I’m taking the torch.

I’m so sick n’ tired of status quo;

I’m so sick n’ tired of sticking to the code;

I’m going nuclear on level sub-zero.

Take this one time and get inspired

Do the right thin’ I shoulda done a long time ago;

I’m a rewrite my story, set myself up as the hero

Cause I’m sick hell, I’m tired.

Akpan

Destiny Comes Through

Hope is hopeless;

Mercy is left bleeding in the dust,

Still destiny comes through.

The falcon has deserted the falconer;

The melancholy strain died on the lips of the reaper.

Still destiny comes through.

The wind is ripping off my house of cards.

I go to war to find one reason to be strong,

And stand in the measure of a man.

I’m so blinded by my fears,

Can’t see Providence’ hands sketching a sparrow’s fall.

It’s all too deep for tears

It tumbles off my mind’s walls

Like ricochets in a cave from a ghost’s footfalls.

Here I am about to toss it up.

But ha! Destiny comes through.

Depression crashes in like tidal waves

Cuffing hearts of men, taking modern slaves.

The race would not oblige the swift;

Expectation’s at odds with them that believe.

Still destiny comes through.

The cock will not crow at dawn,

The stars are black diamonds in a field of gray,

Invisible to eyeballs

Of stranded travelers on life’s highway.

But your blues ain’t like mine

And hope flickers, a tiny glint among landmines.

Still destiny comes through.

Hard work gifts the riches of poverty;

Education is a fat bitch

Vast as the desert of eternal vanity.

Perseverance will suck you dry like a leech.

Ignorance is bliss

Where men beg in style and live on their knees.

Strength of valiance

Is a long shot from coming at the call of adversity.

Each day like weighty dark clouds giving a storm warning

Is heavy with the child of uncertainty,

Yet, someway, somehow, destiny comes through.

Thundering walls cut the warmth of the sunshine;

The red sea blurs the skyline;

Meanwhile, opposition take turns picking fights;

On a pair of broken wings and pitched like kites;

As if trying for variety at the worst of times,

Destiny comes through.

Akpan

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