The Silence/Nigeria
by IKECHUKWU ONYEMA
in Spring 2017
Dexter Jones, "Abandon," (2014)
The Silence
We take our own lives
Through the silence
And clear our own minds,
When our legs walk the mileage
Between here and now
Back and forth
Our voices exchange comfort, care, assurance
When doubt creeps toward the door of our consciousness
Left slightly ajar
Upon our regular entrance and exit
Of this cold world
Protect and defend our inner spirit
Help us to
Through our words
Print our thoughts
Capture emotions
And how how they shift
Not quite the same each time
We experience them
As no two waves from the same ocean
Can be completely identical
For the sand pushed away earlier
That returned
Is not the same,
Even if, by some impossible chance
It returns to the same spot
For that speck remembers the journey
And has learned
To let go and trust
The sounds of waves crashing
Incorporate
The praise hymns of sand pebbles
For their new insights
Constantly, lovingly, boldly
Proclaiming Hallelujahs
We take our own lives, as we indulge our silence
Confusing faithful expressions of love for violence
Waves crashing beauty relaxes
If not for the pounds of force from vast expanses
Ever increasing slightly my chances
Of living and loving another moment.
Nigeria
Close your legs
Rise off your back
And stand up straight
Nigeria
May the booms of the
Beating drums of our past
Play in the ear of your memory
Nigeria
Take a seat at the table
Of human dignity Nigeria
As you do when your mamma
Has laid bowls of water and
Pounded yam upon the supper table
Open your mouth
Wide as you do after
You have rolled a smooth sphere
Dipped into her stuck-fish okra stew
And speak
With your Igbo tongue
Your Yoruba tongue
Your Hausa tongue
Your thousand tongues.
Then say
Everything you mean to say
After 57 years of independence
You are a child no more
The lies about how
Oil development precedes
Human development
Must be ignored
Uneven wealth is no wealth at all
Poverty has more prestige
Nigeria
Let us not waste more time
Laying in the
Wasted dreams of your sons and daughters
Forced abroad
By callous disregard
Soul sinking self interest
And regal exteriors that shroud
Rotten interiors.
Nigeria
Are we past hope?
If so, wrap it’s dead carcass
In our green white and green flag
Until it yellows and browns
Foul as the death we have consciously Chosen
For this wasn’t our destiny.
Dream once more
Africa’s dream
Sing the songs of Fela Kuti’s truth and
Babatunde Olatunji’s drum
Then soar into our
Oriental Brothers high life
Nigeria
Ikechukwu Onyema studied English Literature and Chemistry at Rutgers University, Newark, followed by graduate school at University of Pennsylvania. He produces literature in a variety of formats including essays, blogs, and poetry. In 2011-2012, he participated in the Per Sesh Writer's workshop in Popenguine, Senegal with Ayi Kwei Armah. He's been an educator for 5 years in several different urban areas including Philadelphia and Newark. Currently, he teaches Chemistry in East Orange School District. He also commits his time to being an active labor organizer through the New Jersey Education Association and community organizing with the Black Arts Retreat and other local organizations.
