Why would the heavens craft a place like here?
A nightmare it had always been in its entirety!
Where Man has known no smile nor freedom!
Where the tongue had tasted no paste but pain.
Where air is pleasantly choking but yet desired.
Where peace is only known at pace and tales.
Where have we being born into?
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‘Cry not, Cry not Dear young ones’, the old had cautioned.
Cynicism was what destroyed our mutualism
The world before now was beautiful but yet ignorant.
Man hated men and men hated man!
Green leaves had danced everyday before it gave way to these ashes
Tall buildings had preceded these rubles before its crumbles
Civilization had existed long before the destruction
And the world you see today was before, ‘a beauteous Lady’.
So who are we to blame for our woes?
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Those knew it preached against it
Those who wanted it prayed vaguely for it
Those who would gain from it had beaten a drum for it
It came indeed and gorged us all
The gods grew wrathful and halted its rain
The young and the old ones alike
The acclaimed believers and the booed non-believers all alike
The unlettered Hausa, the cunning Igbo and the sordid Yoruba too
It did not spare even babies hiding in their mother’s wombs
As we had clamored for it, war indeed came and devoured us all.
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Curse not your gods dear youthful ones
For man alone creates a war not the gods
And as such, must live in what he had crafted
The world had more than it needed but never grew satisfied
Music, bread, coats, freedom, peace, bed & even the women that laid on them.
Man had them all but was still, not satisfied & wanted more.
He chided satisfaction and embraced extinction
For those who haven’t seen a war, should flee from its thoughts.
And now that the guns have gone asleep, they should, at all cost, not wake it up.
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Written by

Ogwucheson Rabiu Munkaila
University of Maiduguri, Borno State, NIGERIA