From Lechi Eke’s stable of Satiric Poems and other cogitations
By Lechi Eke
OIL THIEVES
My stepmother is so fat,
Folds of flesh of triple chins
Rest on her chest.
Her eyes struggle to keep open
The lids from hanging shut over them.
Her cheeks are so puffy like air-filled balloons,
Her hands can’t find rest by her side;
They hang like penguin’s coming out of water
With bloated stomach and a waddle.
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Examining Akachi Ezeigbo’s Do Not Burn My Bones, other stories
I know not what puffs her for
She swears she doesn’t eat much.
Every day she summons us to discuss
How the fish and meat and *okporoko
Disappear from the soup.
One by one she makes us stand and
Swear what we know to God.
We swoon and faint standing for
Long swearing and discussing the theft;
Our bones hang out; our ribs
Count themselves and with sunken
Eyes we pray for meeting to end.
At night she leaves us not to sleep, but
To keep watch over the pot.
But at meal times her bowl is heavy to bear to our table;
On the floor she makes us sit and
On the table she alone sits and eats unending…
*okporoko – stockfish
Leaning On A Reed
Thursday, 30th December, 2021
Iju Ajunwo, Auntie Nwaka’s place.
So, I laid my head on my pillow to sleep,
Not tonight it whispered to me.
It was such a terrible night –
The tides were in and the waves washed over me.
When they subsided, I saw I’d been naked.
I called to Europe and I called to the island;
I called to the mainland, and I made plans.
But all failed me!
In the wee hours of the morning,
I heard the soft voice of my maker –
Lean on me.
Trusting in men is like
Leaning on a reed.
Covid-19 Pandemic
Waking up the second decade of 21st century
Our streets are deserted;
With fear and people our houses are filled,
I, my nose on my window
Stain the glass with foul breath.
I see not lurking in the streets
What’s powerful enough –
To drive us out and occupy.
Our roads and street he occupies
Our thoughts and minds he occupies
Our lips, radios and Tvs he occupies.
Our unseen streets he occupies:
Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat N FB
Spreading venom and chaos and bile,
He kills and maims and harasses us
Making us cry and the world bury and bury.
Some say it’s a hoax,
A joke that gone bad
Some call it political arrangement
Something devised by wicked leaders
Who want to rule the world –
Too large they say –
Reduce, reduce, reduce they cry –
If they create not the world,
How come they now want to shape it?
Or like overfed lizards they call their maker to a duel?
Look to it and be warned!
