Water Rising Fast

Photo Courtesy: unhcr.org

We couldn't go back

Water was rising fast

Running right up to my chest

I felt totally helpless

I tossed caution, I fled

With a stove and gas cylinder

I'd thought the worst was over

When I escaped Myanmar.

Six refugees have been killed

Precious lives spilled

Like beans

Here I am stuck under a thatched

Roof that leaks

Cause we couldn't go back

A thousand more

Lost their homes to flash floods

Scrawny belongings washed away

Reminders of shame

Now inflicting pain

In harrowing detail

Thru a twisted absentia

We couldn't go back

Prisoners of inertia

Whose patience bust a crack

Washed away

We wish it was our pain

Washed away

Wishing it was the shame

Washed away

Wish it to war getting us displaced

Washed away

Wishing it was yesterday

With its graphic detail

We couldn't go back

Not to Myanmar its sacked

We couldn't go back

Not to our makeshift shack

There's water swelling off the ground

As from our eyes, water tumbles down

We can't seem to escape our past,

How long can we last?

The water's rising fast.

Akpan

Refugees Make The world Go Round

Today's World Refugee Day
Image Courtesy: UNHCR

Refugees make the world go round

Same world tried to run 'em aground,

So we celebrate World Refugee Day

Cause everyday is a murder day

Not cause everyday's a holiday,

Ethnic cleansing is kids at play

And cruel wars have come to stay,

But we'd celebrate for no reason

And joy would be vague n' a treason,

If we wasn't celebrating people

Fleeing home

Where violence became a staple,

People who reached out to hope

When hope dug a hole

In their soul

And shooed 'em out in the cold.

And now they're raising a torch

In the thick of our darkness,

To guide the world

With the light of their brightness

Cause only together with refugees

Can we really heal

The horror that slithers in the still

Of the night when dreams are starlit,

Only together can we learn

To mend the broken cistern

And combine a beam of 10,000 lights

To ignite each other to shine

In a world where refugees

Compete in the Olympics

Like the swimmer called Yusra,

Are helping to fight the pandemic,

Fighting for youth rights like Aya,

And Ramatulahi who's a lawyer,

Making aviation history like Ghazal

And there's a lady who's a doll maker,

The Olympian who's a mental health worker,

And of course, the professional footballer.

Refugees are writing their names in gold

On the cosmic walls of this globe.

Akpan

Nyiragongo

Help The Displaced In DRC

Rock me

'Til I plead no mo

Rock me

Like Vulcan's forge

Burning my spot

Razing farms of my Cuz.

Swing low, sweep me up

In your tender arms

Of this time love

Rock me in Goma,

Rock me with gentle hands

With selfless forever words

That give succor

To shriveled hope.

Rock me like Nyiragongo volcano

Triggering a thousand earthquakes

That in its turn wakes

A mighty moving mountain

Composed of healing hearts,

Of tiny twinkling sparks

That circle, like sharks

Around the scent of blood,

To attack my countless lacks

And mediate a swift resolve.

Rock me 'til I moan

With unspeakable joy

Let the soothing tremor

Massage sore joints.

Rock this boat,

Take a pin to this bloat

Of infection down in my soul

Just hold out and console

Donate to renew lost hope

Com'on lend a lil' rope

To a drowning man

Rock me will ya?

And say thank ya.

Akpan

Dang!

Cox Bazaar Refugee Camp ablaze with fire.
Courtesy: UNHCR

Dang

Everything's goin' bang

Events summarized in slangs

Join a gang

Or grow a fang

Or get lost when it clang.

It's a boomerang

So y'all can't hang

Last time it was the thang

Next time it stang

Constant birth pangs

What d'you do about the clan?

Arms like orangutan

Hugs like abominable snowman

So what's the plan

A lean mean fracking stand

Git it on, git it grand

Get a band

Make it tang

Go bang

Com'on, dang!

Akpan

Evil Triumphant

Courtesy: UNHCR

Give me your son

That we may eat him,

Bring me the sun

That we may heat him

And cremate his bones

And pretend we ain't seen a thing.

We'll shake n' bury the bones

Why not?

I've seen you engulfed in war

And I turned a blind eye

Why not bring it on

When the spotlight's mine?

We'll keep goin' on n' on

And eventually, there'll be none

Of us left in the world.

Meanwhile, in Nigeria,

Up in the North East,

Bordering the country, Niger,

A wildfire's kindling,

50,000 people scattered

From hell to breakfast.

What about the children?

Can we still call ourselves human

If the spirit's not kindred?

When do we get back to normal?

Hear the children crying

Picture the helpless dying,

Imagine the Government denying.

They stockpiling corpses

While we count our losses,

They're modifying clauses.

We need a sense of belonging

Something to show

We're a part of humanity

Besides this cutthroat

Existence they're dealing.

Akpan

Joseph's Wars

Due to escalating violence arising after the general elections,
Joseph has fled his country, the CAR, for the third time.
Courtesy: UNHCR

Creeping

Like a thief

In the still of the night,

They sped under the starlit

Central African sky.

Sprinting not for the calling

Of the coveted Olympic prize

But for the mortal privilege

Of witnessing another, be it cold, night.

Theirs is a heart-wrenching

Suicidal, sickening story.

Once was it said

But thrice have I heard,

A young man fled home

Not for a crime of his own

Making

But for the volent awakening

That rocked a nation off her heels.

Peace spat in his face

With the sound of gunshot sprays.

'It's the third time. I am tired,'

Joseph says, and his situation is dire.

What is the measure of hate required

To turn on an encore bloodletting?

And whence is the streams of healing

For the afflicted?

My people

Are marked for death

And their chronicle

Is as fuel for the hearth.

Akpan

Covid-Related

Courtesy: UNHCR

Darkness falls across the land,

Shooting straight from the East;

From the pockets of Wuhan,

A plague spat from the belly of the beast

A chip of the Apocalypse

Surrounds you in its mist

Then punch you in the gut

With a iron fist

That throws your windpipe into lock. 🔒 

The Reaper awaits with his scythe,

His footsteps alien and lithe. 

You gotta be Spiderman

Or you's a dead man:

Wear a mask, 😷

Wash your hands,

And hog your distance.

Last year, there wasn't no Christmas 🎄

It would be a shame if Santa Claus

Was down with the Corona. 

If we all could share love

On the same level we caught the virus:

With a hug, 🤗

Thro a cough,

In a simple touch,

We'd stare wars

Down and call its bluff. 

We'll tear down walls

By a sneeze n' a stomp. 

But even tho we y'all separated

We still Covid-related. 

We can do this

Heart to heart ❤️we'll knock this.

Roll out the vaccines for everybody,

People of all nationalities

Let's include the refugees,

Together, we'll erase this disease. 

Akpan

Kitsa G.

The homely Greek lady who sheltered kids from
war-torn Syria in her home. The children fondly
call her, Kitsa Granny.
Photo Courtesy: UNHCR video

Can I call you Kitsa Granny?

Would I be a bother

If I wet your shoulder

With tears that make me shudder?

Will you push me until I swing high

And catch hope as it flutters like a butterfly?

Ring up war and say, 'Eat your shame!'

There's no home bests Kitsa Granny's embrace.

We have reasons to call you Granny

You're family we never knew we had

Blood that mended these broken shards

You've made us the sum of the part.

Akpan

Healing Joy

You wouldn't believe what she's been through

But the path to healing begins with you

Your tenderness, your love n' care's the glue

That will bind her back the way she once knew

Healing Joy is the birthing of a woman anew

Commit to kindness, help her healing come thru.

Akpan

Account Name: UNHCR Special Account

Account Number: 0002706104

Bank Name: Standard Chartered Bank

Smoke Up

You can have a cigarette
If you smoke
Like chimneys no regret
Get it tokin.
Have a seat, relax
Throw your feet n' max
Rewind n' unwind
You're fine git your shine.
But let me ask you
What's on the menu?
Do you keep wake to
Think over the blues
Half the world's going through?
News of grave kabooms?
Go on, smoke up
But who does the math?
Ever get hung up
On who bells the cat?
When they throw a war
Who gets the crumb?

Akpan

Design of Darkness

"I'm gon' have a baby."
Come 9 months and ain't no baby
But an overblown foetus
Which had attained quietus.
Slugs racked her body
Stole the joy of maternity,
One day of bloodletting
Blew a nine month wait
To the Kingdom of No-Way.
And now that she's decay
Who mourns her miscarriage?

Akpan

Leaving You

Courtesy: UNHCR/Achilleas Zavallis

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

The piece you are about to read begins with the second line of the song

“Easy” by Lionel Richie.

Girl, I’m leaving you tomorrow.

Give your best kiss to mama tell her I said so

It’s cold out there on the routes I’ll plow

But I aint much good to you if I hung around

Think of me as your own human anchor;

That person you let go when you need him most.

I may never find my way back home again

I don’t even have a roadmap for the journey I make,

I make no promises I only hope you’ll understand

Someday when you ripen into a full-blown woman

I’m sorry baby but there’s something you must know;

Girl, I’m leaving you tomorrow.

Akpan

Built on Tragedies

Courtesy: UNHCR (@Refugees)
Mother and child, refugees from South
Sudan find pleasure in each other.

Before my time

I was conceived to multiply

And increase the influence of genius

In a realm where ignorance is surplus.

A mystery dispatched from the stars

By special delivery to inspire mortal hearts.

Like the stirring of intuition;

Like a premature seed piercing a rock

To introduce a forest of inventions.

My mission is born.

Before my time

I was conceived to multiply.

Perceived by the multitude

As the oasis of the promise;

I triumph still without excuse.

Sifting reality from chaff of fantasies.

I evoke wide jaws

Like a foetus

Fulfilling biblical prophecy.

As I ride the rage of the storm in timeless majesty.

Akpan