Noel Ihebuzor
No more shall a million songs be dimmed
and muffled by the shutters of tradition,
no more shall we remain silent
before the stunting of the living
to humor the dead
no longer shall we remain mute
in drunk like obedience
to hollow and hollowing echoes from the past
before the snuffing out
of ten thousand and one voices,
no longer remain silent accomplices
when rich possibilities are denied
in deadening numbing initiations,
where blind tradition visits violence
on the present,
dulls, dumbs, blunts
and limits it
no more be partakers of a tragedy.
For is it not tragedy
when the crusted boney hands of the past
trap and choke the present
and deny its petals and potentials
from unfurling and feeling?
We sing the voice of hope,
we sing a new dawn,
our voices affirm the present
unbind it from the rusty manacles of practices
that hurt, humiliate and harm,
our voices tear down blinding practices
as we shake ourselves free
from the shackles and tyranny of some past imperfect
we sing, lips full, voices now vibrant
rejoicing the beauty of petals that will bloom,
the radiance of the bud of the flower
that embraces the open skies
free to feel, unfurl, unfold as endowed
“tragedy is defeated,
the present lives and heaves
rescued at last from the choking grip
of an ossified past
the present celebrates the joy of living
the future unchained”
Our daughters’ voices take up our cue
and sing your demise,
their full voices and lips
announce and chant your death,
chanting it to the four winds
on the four market days
in the gentle glow
and soft smile of each passing moon, happy
the stars winking, decorating the skies above
with a thousand sparkling flowers
our daughter dance,
they dance in agile steps,
limbs and life freed
of the weights of your deadening
heavy lead bangles,
they leap and prance as the melodies
from their full lips and uncut voices explore,
explode with joy, celebrate
and drown the pains we felt”
Reflections 