We Took The Long Way Home

We took the long way home

It’s been tough losing sight

Of where we’re wandering from

Tougher to keep home in sight

We are not losing a war

To the horrors that gut us

But in very generation

Race of man must make a decision

To keep the faith

And rebuff the woos of fate

We may get so used to love

That we take it for granted

We forget what it cost us

To get mankind educated

On love on compassion n’ kindness

On mutual dependence and pursuit of happiness

We have been stripped bare

Shrouded things have been made aware

In a way

The dilemma which plague

Our race goes to show

We took the long way home.

Akpan

Where All Tomorrows Go

The heart of me weeps to belong

In a place where I’ve never come

The scent of its gardens

Travel a million miles

And paint pictures like Eden’s

In the ecclesiastical mind

The water there

Are silvern clear

That kisses the cloud

That swims its depths

Its breath wraps around

You like unsettled debt

The bees there don’t sting

But its robins sing

There is no nightfall

But a glittering pall

I’d love to fall down

Dead like a sparrow

Until I am found

Where all tomorrows go

Akpan

Strange Parts

One day I’ll take a journey

It would be ordinary

I might lean a bit hard

On the sense of the word

I’ll journey far

And deep into a world

Where hearts are programmed

I’ll take a tour

Beyond the storage tank

Where exotic organic chemicals

Are processed into the dark

Laboratories where mad

Alchemists do the math

I’ll peel the database

Download the empirical formula

Until I’m face to face

With the bottom line instructions

Execute the god-factor

And maybe change the world

Akpan

Weep Like A Child

I weep like a child

For a sliver of the past

For a cake of smile

That crumbles like wafer mass

I weep for frosted memory

That leaves a white moustache

When I taste its cream

And grass like dressed salad

I dream of soccer balls

Of buns that are auburn and warm

And bread on palm-oiled beans

Washed down with a tall mug of coffee

I weep for a street

Of laughter-stoned kids

And the joy like a stream

Where our childish screams

Put under the surface grim

Knowing of inevitable parting

Akpan

Paper Still

As still as a paper boat

Upon a paper moat

The valley of childlike wonder

Is sand filled with leaden silence

Anarchy is the new order

Increasing by rapid emergence

The days of our lives

Are numbered by diminishing lines

All is still

All is silent

Depravities steal

Into the deadness.

Akpan

Myself I Must Remake

Myself I must remake

Though desert sand

Bake me into clay

It won’t churn a man

Out of me

I must the Potter

And clay be

Ask help of no other

Myself I must befriend

Though mortal man

Stand by to the end

He’d only hinder

My personal progress

Myself I must remake

Or my substance will flake

And get blown away

Like scrap on judgement day

Akpan

The Gift Remains

I can see tomorrow

My eyes are drills that burrow

Deep to where days lay fallow

The research is thorough

And yet tomorrow never comes

I’m a man broken by sorrow

I’d lease it but none would borrow

I see war I see painted floods

I hear the sounds of rejoicing

I see shod feet running to war

I hear the flimsy choices

That perish thoughts of

Everlasting reunion

I see visions

Of fatal retribution

Like the coming of locusts

I reach out

With trembling hands

And get knocked down

Into sinking sand

I leap into the flames

Of the ravaged land

The gift remains

Akpan

Standing Vertical

Die on her feet

A daunting feat

But she done did it

When she touched the forbidden

She’s ‘bout eighteen

Going on adrenaline

She had a fantasy

And when down believing

Earnestly

She kept her head up

Though they left her forgone

She couldn’t bear

And didn’t care

She’d rather dare

The devil and slay fear

Right here right now

Mister put me down

And book for the door

Cause my day will come

When men shall recall

The girl who couldn’t abide cowards.

Akpan

Shake The Dead

Shake the dead

In their shrouds

Blaze their bed

Provoke a crowd

Burn the memoir

Of a revolutionaire

It shall rewrite

Itself on the walls of your mind

Publish the podcast

Go forth with a blast

Raise a riot

Wake the bigot

Punch down walls

Till duplicity falls

March on pompous grass

Rout the pampered crass

If you get knocked down

Stand up downside up

Until up is down

And down is up.

Akpan

Funeral Ceremony Of Innocence

Let’s talk about death

Let’s talk about decay

Let’s talk about rot n’

Corpses that kiss the earth

When soil drinks the blood

Of those who lost the bet

And caress their skewered gut

Let’s talk about an orphan’s curse

And the riddle of spilled blood

Let’s open forbidden books

Let’s talk history

Let’s dig up our roots

Research our chemistry

Let’s talk morality

And the simple creed of human feels

Let’s talk about hate

And how the over-spill degenerates

Let’s talk about conflicts

That throw relations in a fix

Lets’ talk about wars

And the cost of wars

Let’s talk about the waste

In the wake

Of tragedies

That’s catching like allergies

Let’s talk about the funeral ceremony

Of innocence and the attendees

Let’s talk about child abuse

About human rights abuse

And the organizations that put it to use

Let’s talk about tyrants

Who constitute a nuisance

Let’s talk about agitators

And after all has been said and done

Let’s talk about death some more

Akpan

Mirror Man

You dupe my smile

I guess that ain’t nice

The glint in your eye

Gives you away outright

I turn my back on you

You turn yours on me too

If I walk away

Do you walk away

If I fetch a sneeze

You will fetch a sneeze

I pluck my frown

On your face when I frown

When I hurt inside

Though outside I smile

You return my smile

But do you hurt inside

You’re just a copycat

And that’s the plain fact

You’re like my shadow

With the lipstick on

You’re as sensitive as dry twig

That cackles when trampled under feet

You’re full of hypocrisy

That’s why you’re stuck in fantasy

You’re the deadest thing

Cause you describe me in detail

Yet you don’t know me

Your humanity pales

In light of compassion

You can reproduce in fashion

And that’s the whole nine yards

Beyond that

You’re a house of cards

You do not have a heart

It’s dark where you’re at

You’re like everybody else

You lack a unique sense of self

Akpan

This Is The Day

This is the day

When I take this body

And squeeze it into change

And make a life flourish

This is the day

When my story n’ glory

Get the lowdown on my faith

And translate my chemistry

This is the day

That I will remake

As I take the sun

And reverse its course

This is the day

That I seal my fate

And I’ll run the race

And maintain in grace

This is the day

That I raise a mountain

From a grain of sand

And make my entrance grand

Akpan

I Have Been There

I have been there

And ran my fingers

Along its contours

Memory lingers

Of a terrified rictus

I have been there

It was like watching Dante

On the big screen

Like paying up the ante

For a frozen scream

I have been there

And back a billion times

What’s seen can’t be undone

No matter how time flies

Sound falls like a gong

I have been there

And I no longer care

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

My Words Will Be

My words will be

In time of need

In a scarcity of peace

My words will be a flowing stream

My words will be a refuge

To contain incoming tide of refugees

When silence has no appeal

That’s when my words will be

Face danger and recover

Cause my words will be a tower

In a tunnel of despair

My words will be repair

My words will be onion

That you may peel n’ make pinion

And when you chance that cliff

My words will be relief

And belief

Will sprout from that simple creed

My words will breed

When the going gets tough

And you’re held down by stuff

My words will be enough.

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

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

Cemetery Dance

I shuttle towards the clear

Where all past years are

Darkness, mold-grained darkness

Haunts the grounds like a madness

The walls are as wide

As the years come by

The cobwebs are as thick

As a hangman’s noose

And though I was a tick

I couldn’t shake myself loose

Wish I had a laser sword

To slash thro the discordant chords

What terrors lurking here

Make mortals wilt in fear

The darkness grow eyes

That pierce like filed ice

Sad tales brim and ripple

In those blood-shot circles

Songs for a cemetery dance

That drive men mad.

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

Cadence Bound

Lightning is faster than its sound

But when that comes its thunder

In words silence goes the round

Before sound wakes up suspended wonder

And make the reader shudder

How does a word absorb sound

Crack its shell to free cadence bound

It's magic that conjures sound

Sorcery that jaunts it thro doors,

Not seen nor foreseen by us,

Cut into the navel of the words

How does sound come into a word

How does rhythm leaven syllable

How does meaning evolve from thought

I am a captive in its vestibule

I’m an albatross

Convolved in a torrent of words.

Akpan