When the sun went pale
You caused it
We have lived with your havoc on earth
Of all, What is the gain?
Thy death you accepted without questioning
You blew asunder the hope we had for life and our dreams you shattered
When the sun went pale you did not know
When the moon bled you did not know
When the moon refused to dance, it was like a dream
But when the moon shone you were happy
When you inflicted the pains of a crushing heat in the depths of our hearts you did not know
Religion cropped thy sense to sin
Thou shall not kill was a commandment embedded in thy hearts but you stooped to kill
You sacked our villages
Slit the throat of our grannies and our grandpas, you hacked to death
Our daughters were raped and our youths, you did not spare
Preying on them like vulture is to dead bodies and our houses are in flames
From the Sahel to Kaduna
You slaughtered sleep and wielded destruction in your clothes of death down to the Plateau which lies on Delimi River, near the source of the Jamaari River called Bunga Farther downstream
The village of the Biroms
That wasn’t enough, you sojourned to Maiduguri which sits along the seasonal Ngadda (Alo) River which disappears into the Firki (black cotton). Swamp of the lake Chad
There, you clamoured for a caliphate with brute killings, detonating bombs and cutting bodies into bits
While we slept, you trusted a sword in our hearts
And took captive, two hundred and seventy six figs in the gloomy town of Chibok
Fifty seven escaped and the remaining, you whisked away
The hashtag bring back our girls went viral and the world stood still and yet truth unrevealed
Over the years, one hundred and seven figs were released to fate
But the remaining, you sold to slavery and kept some for self
There is great pain in our hearts
When we remember your deeds
Our cries are in tone and our tears undried
That wasn’t enough, you took another one hundred and ten figs from Dapchi
Five answered death’s call and you released the others except Leah Sharibu the Christain girl
You married her off lmpregnated her and gave her parents pain, sorrow and tears as pride price
Reapers of havoc
Havoc! I mean havoc
Which havoc?
You planted a seed of discord in the depths of my our hearts
A seed that brought us to ruin
A seed that left heads disentangled and bodies maimed beyond repair
The spirits of the innocent help us
We are standing on the other side of life and a great chasm separates
Religion! I mean religion
Which religion?
Jews, Christians and Muslims alike.
One God our Creator
Our blood cried like Abel’s and the ground drank to it satisfaction
When blood flowed like a torrent
When blood spilled like tea from a falling mug
Thy stay on earth is transient
We all came to buy
We shall all return to tender
The sun has gone pale
Pale enough to see how we hide away from fate
By Dim lfeanyichukwu
