Dragons of Home

This war on terror is a lot more about the victims-the dead, the displaced,
the missing-than the psychos wreaking havoc. We shouldn't lose sight of
the big picture and end up defeated.
On the side, what do you think they did to this poor girl to make her strap
explosives around her waist? This is our future going up in smoke.

You’re not here n’ how the clause spawns an electric

Arc that saturates this terrain in a wakeless gray rage

I can still hear your voices carried on the night wind,

Deep down the cove where I tuck my private self away,

Full and inextinguishable as it rides down the throes

Of cruel death and irreversible moldering of the bones;

You come to me in my quietude and unknot the knots

And as the puzzle sorts itself out a shape starts to form;

A friend’s face bending in and out of form taunting me

Begging not to be an option but a number one priority

You’re not here and I’m not there and the difference is

All the world but I won’t turn the page and close my eyes

To the heat, it’s the thorn in my flesh that only I must pick

If I must find peace. It’s all about you, it’s hi time I realize

This war aint about Shekau but you free to breathe, to be,

To dig into all of life’s peculiarities as experience hands it

Down the tube. You deserve the attention and compassion

Showered on you and the memories of you will still live on,

That is one fine article of this assurance I will never break

Until triumph busts open the gates bearing you in its wake.

Akpan

Switched

For all those years I thought the Boko Haram insurgency was
an extended spell of the infamous Northern Nigeria riots

Incomplete, that’s the definition of me without a you

It’s taken me a while but the blinders are down it’s true.

I’ve seen my wrong I know I’ve been such a fool not to.

Unfeeling had me like and I said, ‘It’ll pass.’ That’s cruel.

Why do I visualize paradise but get paralyzed

By the sight of you otherwise immortalized?

I’ll rime till it’s sunrise n’ your night turns brite,

Time I switched sides, be a bona fide paradigm.

‘A few more days,’ I said, ‘and it’ll be gone with the wind.’

While you died in plain sight I let fear lax my heartstrings,

But time taught me not to wait for what tomorrow brings;

I am what brings tomorrow so I rise on a dayspring scream.

Why do I visualize paradise but get paralyzed

By the sight of you otherwise immortalized?

I’ll rime till it’s sunrise n’ your night turns brite,

Time I switched sides, be a bona fide paradigm.

Akpan

T-Concubine

BINTA IBRAHIM
16 year old multiple rape victim with an unidentified child she rescued.

To the 214 rescued pregnant girls so-called “Terrorist’ Concubines.”

Warning to the Reader: Here there be Foul Language.

It's not my fault that I am the way that I am.

So don't judge me if you ain't been up the shit creek I had to paddle.

My sister, I ain't reserve no respect for none of ya'll that don't understand

I suggest you stand back and watch me wriggle thru the eye of this needle.

It's not my fault that I seek solace in your embrace;

That I look up and out and into your face dying for a touch of grace.

Just that your stigma keeps trespassing with the affairs of your mouth.

But I'm here to stay brother, deal with it or haul it down south.

It's not my fault misery selected me over you.

If I did bust that joint has it not crossed your mind ama thrive on your attitude?

When ya'll was all wrapped up in the warmth of fam., I was stolen and abused

You just like them to downtalk but I stand strong and refuse to be reduced.

It's not my fault that those mad dogs threw themselves at me;

So how come ya'll hating on me like I was some colossal freak?

Ya'll should be throwing a party, celebrating the fact that I'm free.

But I am not your expectation and I will survive and bring some style into it.

It's not my fault that I am the way that I am.

It's not my fault that I seek solace in your embrace.

It's not my fault that misery selected me over your brass

So am I asking too much cause I expect some respect for my pain?

Akpan

200

For the 200+ kidnapped Chibok girls.
And it's my birthday, today!

I ain't in a grave. I don't die.

And I know that what I know about myself eats you up inside.

It's simple logic yet, you can't visualize why I multiply

Beyond the grave. My balls is thicker than my waistline

And the last article of me you erase is this light of mine.

I ain't in the grave. I don't die.

Cause I know there's a spot in this universe only I can fill.

Purpose by design feeds my yenning for home.

My faith is so firm the fear of death don't frighten me.

And can't no incendiary bomb penetrate the walls of my hope.

I ain't in that grave. I don't die.

Everyday I rise above the drama you keep bringing;

Every pain I overcome boosts me up to brave the bleeding;

Every sunrise witnessed is good reason to keep breathing;

Every sunset I survive invites me to keep believing.

I ain't in no grave. I don't die.

Tell Mama, the grave cannot hold down your daughter's life,

Tell Papa, I still believe that one day, ama touch the sky,

Tell Nigeria, this lil’ light still got one more shine,

Tell the world, it's my metamorphosis, ama bust out a sweet butterfly.

But above all, tell everybody: Don't give up the fight;

I multiply beyond the grave. I don't die.

Akpan

Postikum

I'm just a face in the crowd.

But I see friendships that might have been;

Smiles that would’ve smoothed out the crease on my brow.

I ease my mind into fickle wishful thinking

And let it wander where human dignity still holds a charm.

And right there, at the center of all radiance is us;

Just us two, bragging and shoving and fearing no harm.

Then reality crashes in like foam-tipped breakers on the shore;

I hear your screams rise from within a fiery grave.

I hear you yell out my name but I am M.I.A.

I see you grope with burning rage for aid that never came;

I feel the deathly heat as your lungs burst, from a distant place.

The terror gnaws at my heart and threatens to rip it out.

You thought I had your back but I'm the one who let you down.

You thrust out charred limbs and clawed at the empty air

What I had to do was grab your hand but I was not there.

I see dead people strewn like waste disposed of at a landfill;

I see young destinies six feet deep in a grave of dreams.

So I scribbled a line to you in that place I cannot yet come,

A monument of words flung up through the voice of one.

I'm just a face in the crowd.

If I’m dead to you it’s because you’re out cold;

If you’re dead to me I should hang with Shekau

How I remember you molds how my story unfolds.

Akpan