By Victor Uzodinma Chukwuma
16. Agony
Why? Am I departed?
In and out,
Am alone in our moonlight
What have I done, God and gods?
Every moon emphasises my misery,
Am I better dead?
The dawn has left me.
Is this dusk?
Waving welcome; into me come.
I have counted my toes,
I have counted my fingers,
Yet leaks my roof.
Am left without,
These pinching days, sorrow
Bites my fingers every meal time.
17. Soul on Fire
Sing the Earth,
Sing it this time,
This devouring hour,
Hour of Minotaur*.
Through the core,
Cling to the gods,
In this abandoning hour,
only the soul survives.
Its aroma, deep and hooked,
Tongue ties the executioners,
So fail not, kindred spirit,
Fail not, son of thunder.
In the greens of hereafter,
The struggling soul shall rest.
- Minotaur: a monster shaped half like a man and half like a bull that is fed with youths and maidens
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.