Segun Ozique

Day is nearly at half Darkness soon would envelop: Out my window is silvery sky Casting sunshine over my greenery This bright beauty of clarity, perfect Allowing plants, animals as humans Have their space; blossoming bliss Is enlivening; awakening my senses People I see, casual, out and about Carry out their business as seen fit: Those with what food munching Straight up, my head says I pray So I say this little prayers of mine To those who wish and cannot see Those in hope be out of any mishap Those limitation brings sadness This shine I pray brings you blessing The light lighten as buoy your blues Awaken He must make your helpers Share this Mother Nature liveliness And when it is over to turn of night Blessing as bright as day I pray Would the experience of sleep be To have you anew for a tomorrow

The anomalies of today are disguised blessings; Bedlam should be left running like a river, never dammed Face it, today's kidnaps, the robberies, the insecurities, etc: The all sorts of chaos caused by people possessed by greed; Angers, hates, preying daily by religion as other institutions All converge to meet needs and wants as are jobs to billions Cut that out and many mouths and belles go destituted We world really need thank God for the social organism Moans is but like self blindfoldedness and ignorance entwined We all need to key in, adapt and exploit such graves opportuned So, rather than stay distracted and delusional by clogged mind We unlike the child need be awakened, gloves off-no playing pretend

Night to day in reverse we glide Ripples of ups as downs, wedlock When the heart beat no more is rest Yours I will; continues like of cherub As I pray for you, Bayo Omo-Ataga Your day is morning yet and filled with Pleasantry, zestful and brightly oarlocked With one more year circled; for new skiff My wish is, you continue to age as sail gracefully

Night to day in reverse we glide Ripples of ups as downs, wedlock When the heart beat no more is rest Yours I will; continues like of cherub As I pray for you, Bayo Omo-Ataga Your day is morning yet and filled with Pleasantry, zestful and brightly oarlocked With one more year circled; for new skiff My wish is, you continue to age as sail gracefully

Please judge kindly I pray Not in rancour or malignly Who, a king peaceful tucked Rudely arisen of his tranquility By screaming of fright and fret At court yard of same genera Would not in concern be affected? Where such cry is of; Et tu, Brute? Would not such king be kind to see The Caeser, Brutus again daggers? I say, no king with a heart who hears Such howl would not be moved to heed

When you have an office environment that is self sustaining and works like clock works, then you are rest assured to pursue the rest of the intellectual business chase-after that makes for realistic possibility of success. There have been light years advancements in the Administration, management, control and technology that have unlocked the ability to provide serviced and virtual offices that can be properly monitored, managed, and controlled both physically and remotely. Much, more importantly, the whole set up is a win-win arrangement for the owner of the building, facilities used within the environment, the service provider and clients, all wired to a system that ensures well-organized services , prestigious offices, environment that assures cooperation, and growth. How so? Most offices renting huge office spaces have operations or productions that require that they own the entire building and, or spaces divided into different sections, department, etc with large numbers of staf

Truth be told, neuter is God as must be gender agenda Biologically men carry sperm, women give birth To boys and girls who turn men as others women As they metamorphose are fitted into constructed edifices Of social attitude, assumption and behaviours Of gender roles, identities and activities Ways we should make connection betwixt one another Responsibilities modified and customized To influence entitlements of properties plus other rights Underlying lives of one set visible and others obscured Questioning why construed threat to conceptual fat bricks Attack on values, socicultural and traditional fabric All shield to perpetuate the skewed voluted relationship Of fortune and infortune to place and position parity

From this little today's acorn We pray, with work on steadfastly The mighty oak just might

Boundless as endless space As garden of varied flowers Your place as species, rare.

Dora and Gab's 34th Anniversary It has been thirty-four years These Oziques sharing same space; From meeting as strangers to being Mates, lovers to delightful partners: From learning to nursing scratches Growing to tending egos and bruises Arriving at stamping features of love At one another; heart to heart. While thirty-four years is good, also, Enough time to taste and savour: As nothing is as good as to have The courage to conjure and brew, To arrive to the sound of victory, As compared to the wimpy runner; The cowardly cow who at the first sight of caused concern jumps ship. Thirty-four years I say is desirable: Ripe enough years to glorify, to feast For great many people have started, Dared experimented to run the race; Started out in a whirling wand But because they lack the courage, Could not make it to the finish-line. Meditation is ever enemy of action; For those in doubt the testaments: Gabriel lays before you trophy of His chase thirty-four yea

Now what can I say, graciously befitting? That when I took my love to the square Pour as water falls everyone, ever known Rolled drums the song; here comes love This hills of biting thorns you turned majestic The bloom of my flower to the song saw joy And to you all here my frankincense of poem Gold I have none only resin inked pouring pen Today we rest having danced your bids all night And as I bend to kiss her new day on opened lips To you, I do the honours, my heart forever sparkle To my lovely flower your accolade made bloomer Thank you God bless you all: your homes; rightlife birthright

Hollow: empty space Where you once were Marks Something amiss The cavity of void The heart going empty The groove of dead palms The grey wall of desolation Stark. Austere. Sign;  a king has fallen How cold and cruel this world How shadow become unbecoming? How can evil brazenly seize, steal In broad daylight our dearest Polycarp? This gap drifting forever now ocean lost Once sat sparkling bright laughing beloved Who knew not to make chuckle throaty Who came bearing pot of love to our cactus Named; the beautifully rhythmic Agatha Ataga Pleadingly we agreed she turned Mrs. Ukato Then this abominable broken bleat announcement Dear Agatha is left amidst swirling dust in the desert What devil dark fog did not let the gods foretold this? Wanting blood run river like from belly of slitted buck Wanting shadow block God's ordained moon shine path For the price, penalty, that our flower begin to walk alone? I urge you all whom God blessed with hearts and souls Pray

The day I die which I see must come Do not hush the news of my demise Do not wonder whispering if it happened Take as it is, inevitable, I have gone, capped Do not go mumbling prayers directing where you want my soul Willing I be on angel's feathers being ferried to heaven not hell With due respect, none of your business but mine to where I prefer I cannot for the life of me not wonder why death is dreaded Why people wonder why it comes visiting when and where When it be told without the ostrich tendered emotion You as I, know what must be, must come, what may Face fact; That age is progressive regress to six feet pit Can't run from; What hours spent here are but borrowed times So, all these being factual like hunger needing nourishment As birth to death come as inevitable course like running rivers So death is as removing dead woods to unclog needful space Therefore, though dearest love ones we would greatly miss Why don't then our thought be of joy laug

Like stuck in the mud they consigned us to standstill traffic, hours unend Not bothered that we scratch and scrap daily, faithful feed for ever hungry family Here the frustration of who really is sane in this insane universe Got me reminiscing What good is this sanity as has it defined to me? Where I have invested in sweat and toils decades and score of lifetime When I only can live of equal to neighbours in dreg and misery To social strata bottled in wild wilderness of squalid state of being Daily we lined same route, like now squeezed and stranded in a frightful frypan-like vehicle Same faces I see daily to soon regenerating lines of offspring as we soon may pass on in misery Inches from us as we waited with impunity our passages is condoned for very important personality Line we must not cross drawn by men and women, puns of our stock dressed behind guns, shields, and tanks Who left their families at twilights to wait in guard for hours while one in question folicks and

Another day and Dawn gradually announces sunrise nearness In the hush within the walls filters the birds' twitter The torments, the troubles, a remote planet By yourself here you are as you, made whole Cast from the reflections above mirrors stirring sensual image That's you like no other beautiful body laid across the bed Instinctively drawing your touch to a pretty heart, even If only this state be carried If only you would stay true, be you Dance to the beats of your heart Not to the music of these others who define and bound you Nor those others hung and filled with grief Would you stay believing in the perfection as within your kingdom? As scattered around you Are the apparel you would wear to leave For soon daylight brings the sun declaring you late Is then to choose of two defining halves Either stay hiding, die a thousandth times, carry on life shadowy Or go, to live, carry on, by the memory of the walls in your kingdom

Memory reminds me; of the good consulting days When? Probably a decade and score days Is that how long HIV/AIDs has been with us? Much more In that world the victims would sneak on us; inquiring, demanding, imploring, searching for answers to the 'whys' 'whats' or 'hows' of the woes be falling them Then there were the media paid rats of the prints and electronics part, of the partaking charade Then the big donor bosses, the top echelon civil servants and experts riding in gigantic cars who come super-vising The politicians would not miss outs as they stop by to inquire what progress and difficulties-they care not do anything about-we face And always, on our feet Day or night We question, study, analyze Coffee, tea, beverage and all chewable passed around to refreshen the mouth and up our low sugar levels against weariness Naps may come on chairs, tables, benches among the figure crunchers who must sit-in to monitor budget and logistics utilization t

Through telephone set in your hand Beautiful news just popped into your text box Took a while, a second reading to register But then it did, leaving grinning engraved On your face before an implosion of a woo bliss Imagine no longer bothered by whatever Before then the vagaries of the day Where time, works and worries immediately get Consigned, oblivion, subdued, caged and banished What to do with yourself next you do not know That is the reach; the apex state of optimum joyful burst With delight and happiness unbounded, unmitigated And all things around you sparkling in prettiness As you drift into mind-boggling fairy-tale sails Time and place whittled to glorious bloom And nothing else matters but grace and praises To make everyone who sees you ask, "what happened?" And you answer, my child just gave birth to a gracious baby boy

Poor soul Recoiling from the blazes of eyes Burdened day or night by own shadow Soul pleading for rain; some light refreshment To wash and lighten the Avenue of faith Unhook the hope being throttled Bring back loyalty of life being turned into vapour Once a soul like wind Unbound and unhinged upon sail And all that you touched of same value Like the anointed and followers Your family no compunction or caustic Once a soul With zest obsessed With gigantic combustible ador King of the crowd on mates Soul never lost in combat Who when others look they think bloom Now, the soulless soul Character clouded by mourn Searching for fleeting doorway In fear of the boo in the pathway Sighting the cloak and sword as cue for troubles Eyes always in watch for probable intrusion Of the voyers in search of who to taunt Who to pin their tag that debase and shames Defeated soul sentenced to endless blues The mask face foreshadowed by misfortune That passers-by look to see sadn

AUTHOR'S BIOGRAPHY: Tony Agenmonmen is a consummate marketer, author and currently President of National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria (NIMN). He has over 32 years experience in marketing, spent majorly with the blue chip company; Nigerian Breweries PLC. He is known for hard work, perseverance, professionalism and strong moral belief. He is a crisis manager and a stickler to 'due' process without loosing sight of reality, flexibility or human fallibility. THE BOOK Reviewed by Segun Ozique. 'EXCELLENCE IS NOT BY LUCK': TAKING CHARGE IN CHALLENGING MOMENTS explores the world of marketing in practice and the inner working that keeps the consumer falling in love with, staying with as well as coming back again and again for their favorite brands. Tony broke down the insider working of very complicated and complex relationship to simple, easy to read and understandable narratives. He made it abundantly clear that successful marketing, branding, sustainability of t

ARE SECRETES BETWEEN SPOUSE DEMCEPTION? I had an interesting but very puzzling conversation with my spouse over the weekend: I saw a picture of someone that looked very much like a girl friend I used to know in secondary school and I said so loudly to her hearing. I went on to add that seeing the picture was such a coincidence because few days back while I was with my mates of over thirty years post secondary school, her name came up and since then, I have wondered about her; where she is, whether married, with or without children, does she still have the nuances and shenanigans I knew, etc, etc, etc. She listened patiently and at the end asked, 'what is wrong with our marriage?' That came from nowhere, I never expected it and was surprised, no shocked, to say the least. I thought quick and as shifty as I could think to avoid being in trouble, I said 'nothing.' then countered with strings of questions; 'why did you ask? What do you think is wrong? Did I say or do