NGOZI OLIVIA OSUOHA

NGOZI OLIVIA OSUOHA

MY ALMA MATER

Dear Alma Mater

I write you in tears,

As I am filled with fears

I am hopeless

And equally helpless,

I cry regularly

And weep constantly,

Nothing seems to comfort me

Because you are in ruins.

The future is blurred

And the night scary,

The past is 'hurtful'

The present is harmful,

The night is scary

The future is blurred.

Built for the future

To nurture the unborn,

Built for the unborn

To nurture the future,

I weep my Alma mater

For the future is blurred

For the unborn maybe uncultured.

Your buildings dilapidate

Your quarters go obsolete,

Your fields turn bushes

Your courts become plain,

I weep for my Alma mater.

You made queens and angels

Giants and heroines,

You produced great women

Wonders of the world,

Dear Alma mater

My heart bleeds.

Return, return O Shulammite

For your beauty wooed the king,

Return for your scent adorned the prince

Your ornament decorated the chosen

Return my purple gold

Return O my St Catharine's,

For my heart bleeds!

IN THE MIDST OF PLENTY

Hungry and thirsty

Lonely and bored

Poor and blind

In the midst of plenty.

Idleness and joblessness

Wishes and dreams,

In the midst of plenty.

Handicapped and constrained

Helpless and hopeless,

Struggles and wars

Ups and downs

Tosses and rebounds

In the midst of plenty.

Rejections and defections

Depressions and retrogressions

Stress and strain

Pain and rain

Anger and rage,

Bitterness and uneasiness

Yet in the midst of plenty.

Uneasiness, unsteadiness

Unhappiness, unforgivenness

In the midst of plenty.

THE GAME OF SILENCE

Close your eyes

Let them remain closed

For you must be blind,

Close your mind

Keep them behind

That is the game.

Make no move

Do not disturb

Here to make you absurd

Look down, not above

Remain silent,

This is our game.

Raise no eyebrow

Otherwise before cockcrow

You would be gone

And we will be done,

Keep calm, it is the game

Make no move.

We are hunger

We are starvation

We are hate

We are terrorism,

We are war

We are tsunami

We are crime

Move no inch

You cannot bear our pinch.

We are the game

The silencer

On the game of silence

To silence even the wind,

We quench the fire

We cease the rain

And we cause draught.

DEAR DEMOCRACY

The more agendas you unleash

The more I feel finished,

The more your orders proceed

The more I see greed,

The more your troops advance

The more frightened I become,

Dear democracy

I hope you are not a tyrant.

Severally, you have failed me

Times without number, you tricked me

Countlessly, you pranked me

Numerous moments, you blew me

Dear democracy

I hope you are not a sadist.

No oneness, no orderliness

No clarity, no unity

No equity nor equality

No justice but malice

Prejudice even to the novice

No integration, but migration

No solution, but segregation

No harmonization, but discrimination

Only cabal too fatal

Dear democracy

I hope you are not a killer

I pray you are not a terrorist

I believe you are not a racist

And may you not be a tribalist.

NGOZI OLIVIA OSUOHA

NGOZI OLIVIA OSUOHA is a Nigerian poet/writer/thinker, a graduate of Estate Management with experience in Banking and Broadcasting. She has published over one hundred and thirty poems in over ten countries and contributed in over ten international anthologies. Her first two longest poems (poetry books) of 355 and 560 verses THE TRANSFORMATION TRAIN and LETTER TO MY UNBORN published in Kenya and Canada respectively are available on Amazon. She has numerous words on the marble. She also writes hymns and Psalms.