By Victor Uzodinma Chukwuma
70. Good Candles are burnt
I heard the child
talk in her sleep:
Here needs peace.
Here needs peace.
The following day,
the head-hunters cut her head
The child, her mother’s child
gentle as a lover’s kiss,
bright as a cloudless morning,
with eyes that is beholding a golden future
and a heart so loving.
The child, a mother of a nation,
is cut as the morning break
with her dreams of peace.
The peace from justice.
The justice for her people
As we mourn, I remember,
at her joyous conception night,
I had whispered in agonized afterthought,
Don’t come yet…,
till the heads grow,
till the flocks time is due,
till we could be heard.
Don’t come yet,
till the abattoirs’ men are gone,
till they are short of stakes,
Don’t come yet,
till there is understanding,
till their overflowing deluge could be seen.
71. Pilgrimage
Let zenith run
my strides will it reach
and hold it in my palms.
I have set off
till I reach,
it’s my back towards home.
The gossip cluster
shall on me dwell
these noons,
till chores call;
these evenings,
till the gourds dry;
these nights,
till the eyes beg.
But pray into nights
call the gods
implore the ancestors
for my front, Father.
I have gone
for the ends
and the beginning,
after the odds and years
I will be back to be your heart desire.
Victor Chukwuma, Professor of Physics, renowned for his immense contribution to the development of Astronomy and Space Science in Nigeria, is a Fellow of the Astronomical Society of Nigeria and the Nigerian Institute of Physics.
