Our Nightmares

Long before now;
When the grasses prayed for rain,
They danced beautifully to the pour of peace,
And true love grew like flowers in our gardens.

But now;
We no longer walk through the quiet valleys of unity,
Where silence echoes loudly the songs of love.

Just like another story we told the moon;
In eyes blinded by ego,
Dark shades we bought to cover our sad reality.

Our minds,
Our sinful bodies,
And our tired souls have turned weak,
Sadness and depression are now the masks we wear on our faces,
Pain and sorrow are now the only languages we speak.

Things are no longer at ease,
Every day is a new day to bury our loved ones,
Every wall is now falling apart,
With every night that passes,
We pray and hope for peace to lighten our homes.

Then, here we are,
Leaning our backs upon the walls of terrorism, kidnapping and banditry.

When darkness seizes the light,
‘People of the night’ come to steal our peace away,
They shoot bullets through the walls of our homes,
Bombing our ear drums to deafness,
Slimming our chances to live in peace again.

They threw our mothers hearts,
Like glass cups, they became shattered,
The pieces injured our feet,
Blood everywhere; from shattered hearts to injured feet.

I see pictures of Zamfara;
Where people carry grief and sadness on their weak shoulders,
They suck the pain on their lips,
Their heads bow down to a mat like Muslims offering prayers, but this time, to depression.

I see pictures of Sokoto;
Where people have become bats that cry at night,
For they saw death and how their fathers turned into flames.

I see pictures of Katsina;
Of missing children,
Of lost parents,
Of dead souls,
Seeking mercy in the hands of bandits.

I see pictures of Borno;
Where people are clothed in scars and pains,
They dig deep into soils to find the lost seeds of peace,
Their grandfathers once sow them,
Maybe they refused to germinate,
They just seek an end to all of these.

I read stories;
Women and children burnt to ashes,
Their names are now dead memories buried along Damaturu-Maiduguri highway.

We have longed for peace and freedom that has never come,
But I hope when they come,
They will not meet our carcasses lying on the streets,
While silence celebrates peace and freedom.

Survival

When COVID-19 pandemic hit the walls of our souls,
In tears of sorrow we teared
Like the flow of spring.

The virus pinched at our fates,
And took our loved ones away
Far to the coast of pain,
And made life a burden to the living.

Amidst the pandemic,
Hunger robbed our souls,
And blood flooded the floor
Of our homes like the rivers in Egypt.

We were deprived of so grave pleasures,
We were forced to stay at home and rest our ego.

Sanitizing our hands became a norm,
And wearing face mask became our daily routine.

We were denied the freedom of education,
We have been locked away in our homes,
Watching the cables while lost in TV shows.

The birds no longer chirp,
The dogs no longer bark,
It has loud silence surrounding our homes.

This trying times had come and gone,
And we are still breathing fine,
But the sad memories still lingers on forever.