Foot Soulja

For all the aid workers who lost their lives during a
Boko Haram bombing of a refugee center.
Photo Courtesy: Youtube.Com

So glad we had you when we had you;

You pulled in a harvest in the desert,

Somehow you sprinkled a glitter of dew

On the dunes in the threat of a duster.

So glad we found you where we found you;

Explicitly ready, willing and quite able.

We asked for a yard and you walked a mile,

You came with open arms and a smile.

So glad you gave up what you gave up;

You wrapped warmth round a cold shoulder,

Built a family from the ruins of war;

You’re a sister, a brother and, a foot soulja.

Akpan

Question I Am

Internally Displaced Child, Nigeria
Photo Courtesy: newsweek.com

Will I ever find that someone who is

The answer to the question that I am?

That person who is the meaning of me

Of myself, who can make my feet stand firm?

Will I ever find that specialty in

Out of the way places or by wishful

Thinking? This is someone I gatto be.

Will I be fulfilled when my search is thro?

I’m busting with questions where’s the reply?

I gatto be the dream that haunts me;

Will I find truth in the black of my eye?

When he comes will he be on the real?

But if he’s the answer that I seek,

Will he not make the parts of me sync?

Will I ever find that someone who can

Offer straight answers to the question I am?

Akpan

We Can't Go Home Anymore

IDP Girl in Nigeria
Photo Courtesy: blogs.cfr.org

We can’t go home anymore.

We docked our ship on a strange shore,

And turned our backs on first love.

We tossed it all for the bombs

And wandered far from native soil,

But home is all we long for.

We buried our hearts in mass graves;

We left ‘em there for keepsakes.

Home aint what it used to be,

So we seek what the lost seek

When home is no longer home.

We’ll return someday we hope

Yet now we can only wait

Cause home has been laid to waste.

Even though we yearn for it,

We will not set foot within,

And tho weeds outgrow our crops—

What good’s food to a cooked goose?

And if beasts occupy our courts,

And rats feast on our thatched roofs,

We’ll survive; life does go on.

We can’t go home anymore.

Akpan