by Noel Ihebuzor Sunday, 19 September 2010 at 00:40
Lost in our greed and lust
we took the short cut and the road was longer
in our rush, in our grabbing rush, in our haste
we grabbed and broke the needle of the compass
and now turn round in endless circles and squares,
moving but getting nowhere and lost
and we missed the matter and still do.
Where the matter lies is where the truth lies,
the truth of a people lost in time, with lots of lust but lost in values
The root of the problem was the problem of roots
suspended roots, shifting roots,
dangling and swinging in the wind,
floating and drifting along in
and with the stream of convenience, like
an anchorless dream, like a malaria-ed dream
At the breaking of the road
we had a choice to turn to the truth,
to return to it and to begin again
to dig to where the matter lies or to lie
we chose to let the matter lie, to lullaby the truth to sleep
to finally lie finally,
hoping to suffocate the truth in the rich folds of our plunder
with the huge pillow cases of our loot
we urged the truth to die
and thus stilled and dulled the voices within us
we bent our tongues
and bartered our already battered and sad souls.
Reflections 
Wow–beautifully and powerfully said.
LikeLike
Thanks, Susan!
LikeLike
Great poem, very well written! Myself and many others i am sure can surely relate to this poem!!!
LikeLike
Jax, The tragedy of our continent is that we make wrong choices!
LikeLike
Okay, N–I think this deserves more than the “beautifully and powerfully said” comment of mine above–that was a cop out. What really strikes me about this poem is the suffocation of truth in money, goods, etc. What was lost here, besides direction in the greedy grabbing, is a soul, a collective soul. The sadness of this is overwhelming, which is why I tried the under 10 word comment back in April. The piece deserved more then and it still does now.
LikeLike
Thanks, Susan. The challenge now is how to reeconnect to our roots, restore our values, reclaim our souls and redeem our nation.
LikeLike
A short list with long aspirations–hope you do it! That’s my hope for the world, actually–the disease is a raging epidemic!
LikeLike
This is a song for Nigeria. We have taken shortcuts at every turn and managed to do everything wrong.
Rather than try to change our lot, we strive to preserve the status quo and ‘lullaby truth to sleep’
This poem is beautiful and sad in all it’s truthful glory
LikeLike
sadly those sired by anger
are boiling with hate
to lose their commonwealth
they look at all with grim
sadly they take the same path
falling into same pit
those dug by their patriarchs
step siding the truth piously
the ping of their bb
rings with curses and malfeasance
roaring with disgust
for the pooh-pooh sprawling on their mats
they tweet all day
not as stewards of truth
but slaves of hate
passionately greedier than their dads
same short cuts taken
same mistakes made
shying away from the facts
sole path of breaking the curse
wishing to change the tide
with same tools that caused the flood
without rationality that paves the flow
wrapped up with sentiments that blinds the face
but we’ll still hope
though we see none
but knowing that greed last not forever
by truth we’ll change this land
it might tarry
it might delay
but one day, despite the delay
it will mighty arise
(Nwachukwu Egbunike, 12/12/12)
LikeLike
Nwach, this is beautiful
LikeLike
Nwach,
I am publishing this on my blog. Please grant the permission!
LikeLike