Problem Solver

I got guns

single-shot under-slug grenade launchers

sawed-off double barrel shotguns

single-action revolvers:

.357 magnums, .45 colt

Italian variants M16s

colt M 4 rifles with special mounting

system M 203 double-action trigger

anti-materiel rifle .50 BMGs

fabarm FP6 carbon fiber

9x19mm parabellums-

m 1946 sub-machine gun

double-action revolver

.30 semi-automatic carbine

.222 Remington, .243 Winchester

7mm Remington carbine

12 gauge compressed Air Launcher

general purpose machine guns

that means I can kill rats with a gun

assault rifles

civilian market variant

designated marksman rifle

.45 ACP subcompact

wlther PPKs, KAC chainSAW

brownings and Kalashnikovs

9x18 mm Makarov

aircraft mounted autocannon

plus I'm armed with C4s

then I blow fools to oblivion

that's problem solved.

Akpan

Strings of Broken Lyres

Let’s plant a forest of words

Let books take the place of trees

Let’s stage worldwide antiwar

Let justice flow like freebies

Let’s march on the walls of hate

Let’s help refugees feel safe

Let’s pull the plug and wipe this world

Let babies take the helm of control

Let armoured tanks process lemonade

Let guns be used for hanging raincoats

Let’s pound the bombs till dust be made

Let slugs be beads of anecdote

Let’s erase borderlines with peace

Let war air crafts deliver mail

Let Jews and Arabs exchange gifts and kiss

Let the train of desolation derail

Let warring parties say, ‘I was wrong’

Let nuclear reactors print Christmas songs.

Akpan

Who They Want

Courtesy: UNHCR/Dominic Nahr

This is the seventh in a poetry series created from lyrics of musical classics.

The piece you are about to read begins with the seventh line of the song “Easy” by Lionel Richie.

Everybody wants me to be who they want me to be.

But I’m just swingin’ and making merry being myself.

They talk such trash around me it’s hard to imagine

Not feeling put away like a bird stuck in its cage cell

But I defined myself for myself no doubt cause I am

This close to decoding an overdrive translation of me,

They spit every answer in the form of a questionnaire

It’s complicated to escape but ama stand and stay free,

And stay true to the original plan it’s the only way I see

Myself crossing that river leaving behind this negativity,

Until I pull all the plugs I’ll never really dig the reason

Everybody wants me to be who they want me to be.

Akpan

Thicker Than Blood

World Refugee Day

I took a ride

In the passenger side

By my best friend’ side

And I got hit by surprise

Like a one-two punch to the side

When the ghastly sights

Paid out in the deep of my mind

Time to do right's never been this tight

                                             

As I bend the corner

There's structures scattered from hell to breakfast

School's been out since summer

And don't look like it'll be back by November

We may not stop the rain of leaves in October

But with open arms we can show em it's far from over

Arm in arm as one people we grow stronger

Thro the storm with refugees we stand together

The lives and future of millions

Rest on the pinions of our opinions

They sailed from afar seeking a new Zion

Fleeing a dungeon they once called home

It's our turn to offer them hope

Bring them into the fold initiate a reunion

Give them warm embrace like true companions

Akpan

Why We Can't Wait

I vote for peace

The kind found not in the absence of war.

The peace I root for exists in a calm, collected state of mind.

But we'll hardly attain that pedestal until we give these suicides pause;

Retaliate with lethal repercussions and serve them mayhem in kind.

If freedom is a bell, I say let it ring.

But let the hand of justice be the swing behind the ring.

Cause there will never be peace

Until every grain of sand is purged of this disease.

Now, I've heard folks argue that our fate will be dealt out by the ballots.

But when I ponder the nightmares fools unleash on my compatriots,

I say hand me a gun and toss the ballots.

They picking us out like clay pigeons and it's hard to exhale.

So if you got something to say, I suggest you step to it and not stall

Or they’ll wrench courage from our hearts. That's why we can't wait.

Akpan

Day 22: Soul Odyssey

Photo: guardian.co.uk

For Mali

We run a race of an unmarked finish line

On a track spiked like the back of a porcupine.

Men lacking the capacity for deep feeling conceived the ruthless disease

Holding out the pot of honey only to buzz and sting like bees.

Souls of mankind stranded in a maze.

The only way out is the hard way,

Cause a hint of achievement sparks up a rat race.

As human souls are absorbed by constant warfare

A state of emergency charges up the atmosphere.

It’s easy to get in but a different story getting out.

If anybody’s ever going to survive this stint is still a case in doubt.

Frustration is modus operandi

And all vanities are stretched to the extreme.

These are the times it’s almost logical

That the very core of men’s intent turns diabolical.

The race course runs through the depths of pain.

In this situation, hate seems the natural diagram to paint.

Every milestone covered commands fear to a certain degree,

We have been brought down on bended knee

And pulling it through is like the labors of Hercules.

Existing in this life is a picture perfect painting of the apocalypse.

Is there hope of a point in time a hiatus would emerge?

Cause truth is mortalized and all ethical motive sabotaged.

As a consequence for the suffering comes bitching

To devastate every sense of rationality.

If mortals are indeed architects of their own destiny,

Then right here, right now, we are from the least to the greatest, history.

Akpan

Lifestyle (II)

How dare you question how I live,

When your assistance was invented to deceive?

You feed your greed

By the breakthroughs I achieve.

I let pain explain

The degree of hate I experienced on this tragic plane,

Cause the dogs are not to blame

For the name of the game.

Yet, the thugs must be crazy.

They call us lazy

Cause we provoke their hypocrisies

And expose them shady.

I do what I gatto do-

What needs to be done to get thro.

There’s hell to pay if I wait on you.

And hell’s really child’s play

When you analyze this tragedy I face.

It’s hand to mouth

And it’s world war IV to zip your snout

While starvation stabs at my throat.

It’s either hustle or I turn ghost.

In this life, you never get what you truly deserve

So I endure a fragile reserve-

A youth with one purpose for a future:

To outlive the laws of nature.

Indeed, you call me criminal

Cause I chose to be a unique individual.

You made a ritual

Of hunting me down

And succeeded in making a little fortune out

Of it while you raped my town

Naked. Truth’s abbreviated

For the prosperity of the party’s hidden manifestos,

All these god wannabe psychos

Refraining pathetic allegrettos.

We are champions of the struggle,

We were here before you,

And after your game fizzles like dew,

We’ll still be here as blinding proof . . .

Marked for death,

It’s very hard not to be afraid.         

You can’t predict what’s next

Damn, all your wit’s engaged.

I’m enslaved

By your freedom

Cause your variety of emancipation

Was designed to incarcerate us.

I invented a personal opus

Within: I’ll bear my cross.

If ever my path hits a deadlock . . .

I’ll brush it off and I’ll walk on.

So don’t question me

If you won’t place your faith in me.

I perceive it’s my destiny

To fashion a lifestyle out of my misery.

You can’t alter my prophecy!

Akpan

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Card #7: The End of the Game ft. The Temptations

The Temptations

Someday at Christmas men won't be boys

Playing with bombs like kids play with toys

                                       The Temptations,

                                       Someday At Christmas

Like a child placed before a natural phenomena

Which impress him like a fairy tale

Weapons reflect the soul of the maker.

And if we don’t end war,

War will end us.

I don’t know with what weapons World War III will be fought,

But World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

All war is deception.

And when war’s looked upon as vulgar,

It will cease to be popular.

For you can no more win a war than

You can win an earthquake.

Someday,

One warm Christmas day,

They’ll throw a war,

And nobody will come.

This poem was written entirely out of quotes by famous people. From Einstein to Jeanette Rankin to Oscar Wilde to Marie Curie. I hope it sounds like poetry than some sort of stern catechism.

Eneh