Long Lasting Love

Courtesy: pbs.org

If we'd step way back

Like a throwback

If we could lay back

In the eternal arms of love

And all was well with the world.

If we adopt peace

As a product of justice,

If we toss in a piece

Till wrath is appeased

And end violence on our streets,

Identify the enemy,

The bombsight of the beast

We gon' solve this chemistry,

Unmask the poltergeist.

If we trade the noise

For the sound of one voice,

We'll elect a golden choice,

Defeat this pandemic

And obtain victory that's epic.

Let the lifeline

Pay out like

A bust of fresh lime,

Quit chasing the dime,

It makes you a ball of slime.

If love is your pantomime

Then your life will rhyme.

Be Love, it ain't a crime

Hate's a greater pandemic

Wreaking worse ill than Covid

That's wasting millions, it's pathetic.

So step back

Lend a helping hand

To folks on your path

See if it don't come back.

Akpan

Diamond Against Wood

Courtesy: unhcr.org

Gather some hoes 'round here, man,

We're about to crack down on this famine.

Break up the fallow ground in Yemen

And only a fool argues with his tools,

Com'on and till the soil as we go farming.

Bring these refugees some refuge.

Let's pool our resources

Get this land flowing with milk and honey;

Break the lack, send some stack of food

Or brother, just pump the money.

This is diamond against wood,

This dilemma is getting whooped.

If we put our backs to the grind,

And keep staying on our grind,

We'll bring salvation

Back to Yemen.

And right there's our commission

Cause we y'all God's children.

Akpan

Empathy Mode

Courtesy: UNHCR

Don't breathe a word

Just cuddle me to your heart.

I long for silent comfort

Till shredding fear becomes art. 

Let our heartbeats

Sound a blended discord

While one runs the scales

Let the other hammer the chords. 

Let our breathing raise a chorus

As we inhale the pause,

Let our exhales be the crescendo

And our chestheaves even out the tempo. 

Sing me like a song

Stroke me like ebony and ivory

On your digital keyboard

Wrap up my broken tones in harmony. 

If only you'd cuddle me to your heart.

It's all I ask

And more than I could ever ask. 

Akpan