Poetry

By

Ajise Vincent

EMPTINESS

Omalicha ,

My personage last experienced quietude

When you were here, with your grace:

It since metamorphosed into a wanderer,

Peregrinating through

Through the methodical shade of nothingness

II

I’ve kept vigils like a sentinel

Trying to cohabit with luminaries gratifying

And solitude decorous,

So as to spur the panacea

To the mordant demons of your absence

Lo! All has been vain.

III

Omalicha,

I miss the smile of your beauty.

I miss the glory of your presence.

I miss the innocence of your heart.

IV

Omalicha,

Please, take me back.

Forgive my past smeared with transgressions.

Let us find amity in the newness of things to come, please.

NORTHERN BLUES

I see a cozenage

Lurking in a turban

Of dirges; evil hiding

Under the sacredness of obeisance.

I see nefarious monkeys

Swing dancing from tree to tree,

Chewing cannabis,defecating brimestones

On walking dusts of the Sahara.

I smell stench of cooked blood;

An aura of roasted dreams,

Being sacrificed daily

To an anonymous oracle.

Unlettered idolatry.

I hear testaments of mambas, bragging

On how their “god” told them

To quell some of their own.

Volitional genocide.

To whose good is the earth fed with blood

That it becomes voluptuous

Eating e’en the blood of its feeders?

What gain would human sacrifices

Rendered to an unchristened “god”

Ensconce on posterity?

Sheathe thy swords into dark caves,

Let peace wash away the onus of war,

So serenity can dine with the present.

Ajise Vincent

A Nigerian Poet, his poem “Song of a Progeny” was shortlisted at the Korea- Nigeria Poetry fest, 2015.  His works have been published in London Grip Magazine, Kalahari Review, Sakonfa literary magazine, African Writer, I am not a silent poet, Poetry Pacific, Commonline Journal, Black Boy Review and various anthologies. He is currently completing a Major in Economics in Nigeria.