Trying To Survive The Night

Courtesy: UNHCR

Don't wanna know how the sun

Travels round the moon.

And seriously speaking, I'm not

In the complicated mood

For a geography of tall stories.

I'm bringing my theory

Down to earth,

To us grounded in a hearth.

I'm all about the chemistry

Of self-annihilation

I'm up for a study in human tragedy

On which the race of man is sprung.

Bring out all the bombs

Throw some Uzi in the lineup,

It's the school of hard knocks.

Love don't live here.

This is where gore rocks,

Where pregnant women flee for fear.

Here it's ok to kidnap girls for ransome,

To hold school boys hostage

Even if it's just to prove a point.

Hope we still on the same page?

In point of fact, why not lose the book,

We all know these things get cooked?

Let's do this by word of mouth,

Why the river of humanity flows south.

We slot peace in the ballot box

And then harvest absolute bollocks.

It's trend of the time

And we blend 'n grime,

Now here's something we gatto do

This depends on me as you;

Shoot your hands in the sky

If you've seen enough people die. 

Akpan

50 Shades Of Tigray

Nigsty, an Ethiopian refugee who
ran to Sudan while pregnant. 
Courtesy: UNHCR

Updated: January 6th, 2021, 09:20AM

Here I am

Dabbing 50 shades of Tigray

With rapid strokes teasing dark clouds pregnant

Banishing every promise of sunray.

I'm painting my story

On a easel for display

In the soul's gallery

Fine-tuning the horror to bright as day:

Three labored days on the road to Sudan

An expecting, hungry and haunted mother

Prayed, “God, keep my baby in,

Until I set foot in an inn

Even if it's one with the windows punched in.”

Soon Nigsty mothered her daughter

And said, “my hope is that my baby

Can return home safely.”

Up there against the lighter shade is Ngesti

A refugee scholar

Turned teacher in a strange land

Honing her skills making kids young scholars.

You can almost hear that lil homs

Whisper, “I miss home.”

Yesterday, Tsige had a heartful of hope

Today, she sleeps on bare ground

Without a change of wardrobe;

She told her fam they had to ditch town

Dreams of a better life,

Her children's higher education all left behind.

Higher up on the canvas

The picture starts to fade

But alas!

Tigray's skyline is a firework of gray.

Akpan

Long Story Short

Courtesy: UNHCR

After all has been said and done

Like phantom tears from the heart of the sun,

The lust for war gives rise to refugees

Passion for bloodshed sprouts displaced persons.

After all that's said is the bomb

That empties Tigray into Sudan,

Then the slugs of a gun is enough

To send Shona scurrying to Kenya.

All that's said

And all that's done

Wakes the walking dead

And evokes a world undone;

People absolved of all feeling

Eat the heart of the living.

We bleed when they feel the need

To redeem the essence of their greed. 

Akpan

Say It Ain't

Courtesy: Pinterest

Do you have a freaking soul 

 But maybe even that is sold 

Lookit all the deed you sowed 

All of it and say it ain't so.

Akpan 

Don't Talk About Death

Don’t talk about death

I’m kinda missing life as is

I wish I could be there

I got too much life to live

The theme of the news is death

Facebook posts publish death

YouTube videos produce death

Twitter hashtags…

Git me the hell outta here

Don’t talk about death

I paid my debt

So I just wanna collect

Death is the new pet

In Libya, Syria, Sudan

The whole earth is a battlefield

Blood-bleached sands bleed magenta

Sanity is thinning shield

Don’t talk about death

The auricle is lead.

Akpan

Born To Strange Sights

I was born to strange sights

But there’s none more strange

Than man in his fated plight

Half of humanity is estranged

While the other half is deranged

Life is a gamble

You could get haggled

At the roll of a dice

Kiss of life

Could chill your bone to crystallise

I have observed a nation crash

Because its ruler was rash

In his choice of words

And youths spark a revolution

I have seen refugees welcome

By a state fresh out of civil war.

Akpan

Revolution

He who seeks his now life

Shall lose his next life

For without the shedding of blood

There can be no revolution

This is not about dying

It’s about dying to live

It’s about looking up and

Beyond the decay that

You have been forced to endure

And seeing the life you adore

Within your reach

Yet, out of reach…

A life which bleeds value

Will lay intense pursuit

Behind the curtains of blood,

Of the things which give it worth

And though that life don’t wanna die

Yet it will not profess a lie

It will stand and stare death down

Rather than take a bow

That life will never stop giving

Though it’s got nothing left to give

That’s the life

That sparks a revolution

That the life

That can’t witness corruption

Even if it dies

Its seeds sprout a million lives

It cannot thrive in slavery

It will not strive with drudgery

What it wants it fights for

Cause that’s what gives it worth

A life that looks beyond death

Because it’s stronger than death

That’s the life not scared of revolution

That’s the life that liberates a nation.

Akpan

Let Tyrants Fall As They Fall

Let tyrants fall as they fall

bump! bump! bump! bump!

into ledges that jut

from jagged edges of rocks

and double over in tortured pain

only to bump! bump! some more

all over again

let grains of dust rise

and settle with finality

on their demise

a swastika of their hypocrisy

for ages we’ve been served

a dessert of deserts

desiccate purposes aver

we now reassert

collective sovereignty

tyranny shall not prevail

we, the people declare our liberty

human rights must avail

let tyrants fall as they fall

let Nazis fall

by their own blitzkrieg

fall shamefaced down

like the ostrich

head in the ground.

Akpan

Silence Of The Drum-House

Silence so weighed down with load

That it would crack an ego

Has been impregnated

She has delivered death

Into the bosom of the earth

The deep heart’s core veneers a hearth

Billows of blinding smoke

Intervolving hate and faith choke

The humpty dumpty club

This is where the buck stops

Hear what the thunder said

The weak of heart shall not be spared

Silence will expose the hypocrite

A tied tongue will pronounce treason.

Akpan

I Have Seen The Wind

Sudan's Million's March
Courtesy: euronews.com

I have seen the wind

It’s neither you nor I

But look up a Sudanese

In a march of no compromise

I have seen the wind

Don’t let it pass you by

We’re tearing down this tyranny

And we’re taking it outside

I have seen the wind

A hurricane hath no fury

It’s blowing change birthing new life

You best not get left behind

I have seen the wind

It beckons you and I

To help the Sudanese

Translate a dream into life.

Akpan

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Fight

Sudan's 'Millions March' against military rule

Do not go gentle into that good fight

For your redemption draweth nigh

By default or by design

You just peaked Africa’s pride

Joy comes in the morning

If you keep your shit tight

Clip the claws of tyranny

Discharge your widow’s mite

Do not go gentle into that good fight

Stand strong as one people

Pump your fists in the sky

Champion this struggle

Keep your eyes on the prize.

Akpan