MINE IS A COUNTRY WITHOUT A SOUL

And before dawn, after the nightmare

Of daylight massacre

Roasted bodies of our women

Toddlers and school children

Gorily decorate the whole town

In thousand rows

Like filthy red oils on canvass

I cry for my country

I groan for the living dead

I mourn for the murdered innocents

Oh! Mine is a country without a soul

A cursed jungle of evil forest

Where life is not a life

And souls roam aimlessly

Without a destination

How did we get here?

I do not know

But all I know is, unannounced

Like a lightning thunder,

They came with no mercy

And struck like rabid dogs.

Cornered and powerless,

They hacked us down

Like stubborn pests.

And from that moment on

Terror strolled into our quiet

Neighborhoods like a mad tenant

And every day became like

A festival of doom

In my city of fireworks and thunder

Where cold blood is manufactured

Like a poisoned sea

Amidst joyful ritual of the

Petulant neo-gods shouting

“Allahu-Akbar! Allahu-Akbar!!

I cry for my country

I groan for the living dead

I mourn for the murdered innocents

Mine is a country without a soul

A cursed jungle of evil forest

Where life is not a life

And souls roam aimlessly

Without a destination

This wicked hurricane

Has struck me to the core

And now all my bones

Have been broken down

As I lay deep in helplessness

To the waiting arms

Of the hungry earth

I asked,

Where are our Obas, Emirs and Sultans?

Where are our Baales, Ezes and Councilors?

Our Governors and Jonathans?

Our Leaders, where are they?

While we toothless commoners

Born in my city of fireworks and thunder

Host constant terror in our

Thatched houses without a choice

Fear rears his monstrous head

As sunshine shut her radiant eyes

And Death too haunts and batters us every night

As we plead in vain for mercy

 

I cry for my country

I groan for the living dead

I mourn for the murdered innocents

Mine is a country without a soul

A cursed jungle of evil forest

Where life is not a life

And souls roam aimlessly

Without a destination

And before dawn, after the nightmare

Of daylight massacre

Roasted bodies of our women

Toddlers and school children

Gorily decorate the whole town

In thousand rows

Like filthy red oils on canvass

In my city of fireworks and thunder

And so, their troubled souls

Begin their eternal journey

Beyond the seventh sky to find,

A place of lasting peace and rest

Tell me, is this what we have bargained for?

I cry for my country

I groan for the living dead

I mourn for the murdered innocents

Mine is a country without a soul

A cursed jungle of evil forest

Where life is not a life

And souls roam aimlessly

Without a destination

Our Leaders, where are they?

When rain falls on leopard,

Does it wash off its spots?

Tell me, has the richness of Aso lives

Washed off the love of our Leaders

For us?

This wicked hurricane

Has struck me to the core

And now all my bones

Have been broken down

As I lay deep in helplessness

To the waiting arms

Of the hungry earth

I cry for my country

I groan for the living dead

I mourn for the murdered innocents

Mine is a country without a soul

A cursed jungle of evil forest

Where life is not a life

And souls roam aimlessly

Without a destination

Mine is a country without a soul.

©adeolagoloba 2014