LINES AND VERSES

It is said that if you want to destroy a nation, attack its moral values. The moral values of our great nation has been under attack, and in the best part of the past fifty years its been on a drunken reel. A prominent Nigerian once narrated her delight at visiting a state-of-the-art public convenience somewhere in the west. She told her listeners that she liked it so much that she felt like “taking it home.” Now, that is the problem. If she had felt like coming home and building something like that in her capacity, she probably would have made a difference. But because uprooting such installation and bringing home was both a pipe-dream, and a wishful fanning of her vanity – the experience was pointless. That is one deficiency prevailing in the psyche of most Nigerians; we always want something made for us! China is producing – we become their biggest trading partner. Dubai is developing – we flood their economy with our oil money. Ghana’s got their education right – now that i...

EVERYONE HAS A PRICE TAG, though in the real world a lot of people can be bought quite cheaply. But mostly, what a person desires is to be treated as the human they are. For instance, recognition for their contribution to a course, no matter how minute – and they are bought! People rebel mostly because of wounded pride; basically because they are denied the opportunity to express what they thought was their right, or freedom, to put it more suitably. The worst creatures walking the earth today are men and woman so consumed by their pride that they deny every other person who crosses their path their opportunity. They make it seem like the world was created just for them, and the rest of mankind made to glorify them and grovel at their feet. They find every achievement they have no direct or indirect input into very undesirable or inferior. When they need you they would turn the world upside-down to bring you on-board, they never – for a moment - consider that you just might have a life...

When word fades and whisper ebbs into  deafening stillness. Only stirred by the soft pound of the heart. I hear you. When silence gives word to the unsaid – unaired accusations birth resentments, and forlorn expectations stare in folded arms, waiting. I hear your footsteps on the passage of my soul, descending. I hear the door softly closing; and there  is nothing more palpable  than the unshared pain. And here we are, our hearts so close. 2010©J.Ifeme 

Let me tell a tale of mortality, Unveil the marks of your immorality. Let you see every line, every crease, How a delicate skin decrease, In this battle of virtue and sin. But … I will watch your back, hold your stare Much longer than a best friend would I have no lies of my own; I could be what you would – Yes, I have no motion but yours will do, And I could even live your emotion …just to please you But I know a feigned smile And I could learn you a new charm, Give you a stage if you want to dream For you live in a world of much harm. Let me be your mirror, intricate and plain Untainted by time. 2010©J.Ifeme