Our teacher asked how to tackle kidnapping
By Lechi Eke
In the civic education class
Our teacher asked how to tackle kidnapping
Two of our mates have been kidnapped
Sarah shouted: pay our legislators pittance!
Our teacher glared at her –
Pay our legislators pittance?
Yes, she said.
Stand up, teacher commanded her.
Did you eat this morning?
Yes, ma. I ate yam and egg sauce.
No tea? Teacher asked.
No tea, ma.
Why? Teacher asked.
Because we can only afford one protein,
We chose eggs.
How does kidnapping concern *NASS?
Before elections, people begin to disappear,
Many get kidnapped; lots of ritual killings.
After elections, things return to normal…
So, I say, many politicians use human –
Blood for sacrifices which make people
Disappear.
*National Assembly of Nigeria (NASS)
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Oil Communities
Where will they live?
These people who’ve made us rich?
Their land is gone and gone is their water.
Farm, fish or drink, they can’t,
But swim in *kai-kai and *kingana.
They fight, lose their teeth and smoke away their lungs;
Their sons are not in school and
Their daughters carry early *belle
Inside King Solomon’s Mine,
They die of hunger, of thirst and ill health.
Black gold from them globally
Enrich and clothe men/women with fat and surfeiting.
*kai-kai – local gin; *kingana – snuff; *belle – pregnancy
A wasted life
I see her with nose in the air-
In vogue lady with no match at all,
Her nose in the clouds; her eyes disdain-
Her suitors cringe and fall back.
To the highest bidder she goes.
Her clothes are Gucci and Fendi-
And Jimmy Choo makes her shoes,
Her bags and watches on royal wrists are seen.
She wines and dines and makes a pack of money-
Smiling demurely, in trendy places she hangs.
Taking her smooth and glam the years flit away,
Not leaving her rich partners, all
Snatched, by old age and death,
Now wane and old, a companion she seeks:
But the men are at home with wives and kids.
So, the wandering eye that came near she traps
With voodoos and charms and enchantments and chains-
Until to God madam cries out and
She drops, dried up and wasted.
From Lechi Eke’s Satiric Poems N other cogitations