Mercy O Merciful! On my prim soul in agony A woeful reverie called today And a heavenly gentle sleep I saw Carry you far away O what can in Fate's eye be Of what a vision false and I Sullen as a dead tree leaf With only a soul, a mere wee Soul inactive in a shallow sea? A godless soul would die as dregs In my scathing pitiless pain Were I not that drop of foggy milk Then into a fetus lump and I In your warm glorious grave Was shaped with bones and flesh And when first I…

Farewell to the thermal yore Some whereat things did follow Man, my pioneers sang fluently What gives man power to rise Farewell great ancestors due Realms of songs have I imbibed So sweet, soothing and pricking And would be gross to deny Thou art Wisdom, fast Socrates Though Utopia lay on leaves And Aristotle, so mildly brave Charged the perils of degrade Adieu Chaucer for thy lays May I just a day be let To wend to Canterbury So to look at Bath's deaf wife Spencer's Prothalamion's great Of tales pressing and fearful With fair bids that sweet Thames run…

i. Abuja: Mortality-October 1, 2010 Splintered, the Unity City,dazed by debris, screams… Debris sinks the flashing green, amber and red gleams. Night-silent, the golden jubilee rites amass victims. The city is one with the abyss, you cannot hear any voices… If we are broken whispers, we do not heed ourselves. If this is communion’s excess, can you, silence, save us? So, speak to the void, be heard: “This disorder must alter…”   ii. Abuja: The Casualties-June , 2011 (For the poet, Abdul Mahmud Obemata, co-witness to the bombing at the Police Headquarters, Abuja.) Blackness blankets Carter Crescent, smokes out roofs,…

The Birth, Childhood and Maturity of Nigeria By Muhammad Ajah (Being a piece from his poem collection titled: Sing to Me, Nigeria)   1)      Sing to me, Nigeria In 1914, in our homes where We looked at one another and smiled Amalgamation was born Then we became powerless Powerless because we received orders From those who cared for us Like a child punished for disobedience They loved our unity for united gains And traded upon our sweats As we shrieked in fear When a white man stood before us                                                    2)      Sing to me, Nigeria They traversed the plains of…

TO YOU who rise each day to do a honest day’s job who regardless of your station in life, bring excellence to your work who pirouettes with such grace you keep Nigeria moving…and smiling who shine so brilliantly, you defy the darkness of mediocrity around you who blaze a trail of superiority that only the courageous dare follow THANK YOU For not using your uniform to prey on those you were sworn to protect For not moonlighting somewhere else while collecting salary as a traffic officer For not allowing our roadways to degenerate into tar jungles on which the big…

By Muhammad Ajah (Written at the NYSC Orientation Camp, Kubwa in 2001) I am lovesick After a long search for real life A beloved that says everything she detests And only in me she must live A long search for proper, a change of mind From one to the other, love-sickened Ugo is a beautiful mighty bird Who, very quick to grip strongly firm Flew into my heart with her soft wings To pacify the fast beat of my vein and artery I am lovesick And forty hours after our meet A love longing man must depart A time when…

We are doomed A few seconds of earthly bliss, Fleeting moments of ecstasy Now we gnash our teeth, wail and groan; Our sorrow has overwhelmed us, Like the weight of a mighty ocean Sadness crushes us perpetually. There is rottenness in our bones; And our bodies are decaying There is death in our blood We are doomed Our defenses have been crushed; Completely shattered and obliterated There is no sign of relief and no end in sight We are doomed This disease not like any other is beyond comprehension; Why should the young and strong die? Why should the wealthy…

For Gbenga Joseph Oluabey, his wife Ebi and their two year-old daughter Adora, Friday the 19th of January 2007 was just like any other day. There was work to prepare for and the usual care for baby Adora to sort out. Little did they know that a chain of events would send their world spiralling towards a heart wrenching direction. Rivers state - born Ebi, a consultant quality adviser with STAOIL started feeling unwell; husband and wife linked the cause of Ebi’s illness to her four-month old pregnancy and like all reasonable people will do in such circumstances, they decided…