Nigeria Writer: Never Again

By Felix Brambaifa

Taste the deep salt of my tears

Realize that my heart is tethered in despairs

Taste the solitude that binds me

Then you shall realize I seek to be free

Many the concerns that waft through

But none to measure the contents of my grief

This reality is to all but a domineering few

Whose vanity drives their rectitude adrift

My bond from childhood was forged

So I had pledged to a service of truth

But now my confidence deeply scorched

Erstwhile loyalties must now bear ill fruit

How vain the pursuit of the commoner

Whose gaze pierces not even his own ignorance

How certain he might never become the dreamer

Whose visions take to account his annoyance

Never again shall I subscribe to be part of this

Never again shall I claim nonchalance

To embrace quietude when events go amiss

When the clandestine make their stance

Judge not unfairly the particulars of my origin

For as a Nigerian I am greatly aware of shame

And her wickedness that makes us all scream

I am victim to the vices that brings her fame

So now I stand on the grounds of convictions

And disavow all commitments to her gains

To make ridicule of her false constitutions

Which forever has held us all under chains

With resolve I wash anew my defiled dignity

And put before suspicion things of government

For it was and still is the hand that brings calamity

And for their sake did we endure cruel torment