PrintPoem – Pray, tell! (By Agbaakin O. Jeremiah)
Pray, tell!
Who plunged this abominable steel
Into the great Iroko?
There where lesser trees flanked
The surviving relic of the realm.
Who shot the gilded eagle
Before it had executed the gods’ task
But like Marathon
Never relished the reward
Save for Nirvana’s nicest niche.
Who hurled bombs
To this ancient market
Where the gods send sale-spirits:
The leaf-coated, amiable ‘anajeres’
But, now a gathering of departing spirits
Of those caught in the blast
In their prime.
Who slew the rude vultures
Who plucked life from graceful swans
When their time to soar has yet to ripen,
When the thrill of a drift is still in the cocoon.
Who dregded the icy Lagoons
At their fiercest rim
And de-god the fifty shrines
Up in the groves.
Pray tell, who is this bold?
Who is this daring?
Who is this reckless?
Who is this cruel?
Author Bio:
Agbaakin O. Jeremiah, a NIGERIAN poet and campus Editor is a final year law student in University of Ibadan.
He won the maiden Ogidigbo Poetry Prize; and is a six-time runner-up of 2016 Briggite Poirson Poetry Contest.
He is featured/forthcoming on Sentinel Quarterly, Tuck Magazine, B.P.P.C (Loops of Hope) Anthology, Irawo Anthology, PIN Quarterly Journal, Kalahari, Praxis Magazine, Sub-Saharan Magazine, African Writer and elsewhere.