the world has been so silent today
the hangman has outlawed noise
the streets have been so quiet today
the emperor has proscribed gos-sips
the theatre has been so calm today
the general has outlawed make-believe
the market has been so full today
the state has canonized lies
the hangman has sentenced conscience
—
i know why the sp-arrow sings
the sp-arrow sings
because another climbs
a heap
and gets
taller
fraudulently
he sings because
hunger punctures
a dreary smile
on his y-a-w-n-i-n-g lips
and
up there
the crooked sparrow
answers every question
with accents of thunder …
i know why the sp-arrow sings
he sings because
the night gets
thicker
and all hopes
of dawn
get
deferred
—
nothing compares with the emperor’s love
the emperor loves us
he gives us the promise of darkness
but with the assurance of a dead moon
the emperor loves us
he gives us the peace of easter
but the hope of pente-cost is a pascal tale
tell the emperor
we have head-ache
he gives us men-stro-gen
tell the emperor
of the horror
of glaucoma
he gives us iodine
tell the emperor
we are failing
he takes us to the river
says: “watch away your badluck”
the emperor loves us …
there is a touch of despair
in everything he does
—
the undertakers
see see see
morticians dancing with
the casket of our dreams …
throwing javelin of dis-cord
into the perimeter of our peace
see
see
see how the ambulance
of lance
terrors
drizzles dusts
on the un-tarred road of our mind
see see see
how com-patriots
in ogunpa and kudeti
hurl faeces into the
canal of our flowing thoughts
see how mutil-nationalists
feed blood
to the river of our thirst
see
see
see …
morticians are dancing
with the casket of our dreams
________________
all poems taken as part of: the tongues of a shattered s-k-y, Ibadan: Blackgraphics Publications, 2012. © tosin gbogi 2012.
________________
A former Senior Arts Editor with Kraft Books, Ibadan, Tosin Gbogi lectures in English at Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria. His first volume of poetry entitled the tongues of a shattered s-k-y will be officially released in Nigeria by March 2012. He is presently a postgraduate student of English Literature at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge.