Segun Ozique

  A city, the wolfs live side by side the lambs The spider a few houses from the fly Bosses across street from their workers Hunters and wagers in vicious tango ball City, humanism and nature are empty concepts All that counts are lives as commodities and money Men and women exchanging their bodies or part; Their lives, the content in control of the devourers   Dead lives kept alive by marginal fortitude Wretched and impotent agent of happy hours Consumed by eaters of the been born dead; By conditioned huntsman of unending miseries

Museum home to the curious Richly piled to brim with mementos Of so many extinct ways and beliefs: Parts; pieces of crowns, shoes to caps And, beheaded heads of monarchs: All relics of a people exterminated That in tramp for progress, stood In the way of expropriations: needed Goods for furniture, fluffs, furs to hats. As those coming after us are sure to find Same sort without clownish crowns; The relics - leftovers of victims of genocide Part end-product of venture exploitation   Of today’s seekers of mineral and munitions

Growing up in Lagos as a Christian with Muslim neighbours all around me was fun. I knew our religion was somewhat different from theirs but believed what separated us was just that they had different heroes from us; with us, it was Jesus Christ and them Muhammad. We attended our services unmolested or unchallenged as they did their many prayers and just like we do on Sundays, they have Fridays’ dressed-up grand assemblies. Despite the veil differentness which we saw as only ‘of mode of prayers and different heroes,’ it was a perfectly pleasant and non judgemental relationship. And, just as they always looked forward to and participated fully in our celebrations of Christ’s annual birthdays and all other Christian rites, so we also fully celebrated and habitually looked expectantly and with glee at their hero’s anniversaries and Islamic ceremonies. And up till when I became adult, the dramas of sin and redemption, absolution, preaching, conversion were all engagements done in priva...

Do you pray every day through pains Do you have endless stream of tears Do you travel in lone roads of dead ends Come with me to pathfinder friend of mine Do you wake with screams of freedom? Do you feel lost, raped, stripped of rights? Do you suffer the indignity of inhumanity? Come with me to one with helpful solutions Have you gone back and forth in disaffection? Pray someday soon death come take the pains Tearing yourself for fate dealing you such blow Worry no more for He has rallied in waits with aid Open your heart ready to receive His embrace, to The one called Jesus, the Christ of the Holy Trinity