Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Listen to my mind. (PLEASE!!!)

For a while now, so many things have been going wrong in Nigeria. The funny truth is that all that a lot of us like me have done is sit (or stand... or sleep...) and talk against the country. I wrote this poem after a hard thought about the future of this nation (which scares me). I'm not sure of where we are heading, but i know its somewhere. It's up to us to decide where we want the destination to be. I'm guilty your honor...
The title of the poem is in Igbo and means help me when translated to English

NYERE M AKA...

I know what is wrong,
So I will give right a change.
Don’t ask me how I know,
I just know.

I might have lived around
Wrong for too long,
But I can tell the difference.

If you make me a judge,
I might judge wrongly
But when I sit in the crowd,
I judge right.

So many things are not right
And I can’t do anything to
Correct them unless you help me.

I’m decaying, someone please
Help me!
Everything in my system is wrong
And my children suffer for this.

Don’t stand there and just
Yell at me.
Help me if you can.

Even if you detach
And run away, you would
Still come home soon.

You call me all sorts,
But don’t forget it is
You that make me and
I that give you your identity.

We are inseparable.
I only have hope when you
Give it to me so stop taking it away.
I am what you make of me.

You are my creator,
The only reason I still exist.
I am your body, your group,
your identity.

Turn back to me.
See how profusely I bleed.
I’ll keep bleeding till you
heal me.

You know I won’t die.
Of course I won’t
I shall die only when you do
No matter how far you run,
We’ll still die together.

I am not tarred, in darkness,
Hungry, kidnapped, thirsty,
Uneducated, cheated on, insulted,
Corrupt and suffering

You have let me be all this.
You haven’t done anything
To help me.

How long shall I stand here and bleed?
How long will you let them mock me?
How long will you ignore me?
Please do something quick!

I’m tired of waiting…
-Chizitere.

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