By Noel A. Ihebuzor
the child as mother
smothers childhood
the murdered mind weeps
when torture is garbed as culture,
a deadening deaf culture
deaf to pleas and protests
pleas of despair
the despair of the innocent,
thrashing like fish
trapped in a net,
whimpering and weeping
the lonely lament of a lamb,
her neck gripped in the jaws
of a predator, depraved,
blood spurting from ruptured aperture,
victim’s pain and slow death
contrasting with victor’s rapture
the shivering of the struggling lamb
before the slaughterer’s blade,
as dreaded night falls,
in vain searching the dark world
closing in on her for some light
to brighten her bleak plight and
and lift her soul,
finding none
heiress of pain,
fragile limbs grabbed, groped and gripped
by coarse grasping hands,
the repeated shattering pain as tender
flesh is gashed by hard hot flesh,
the happy husband
invades soft developing chambers
savours with selfish relish tender flesh,
matters little
this maturing and developing frame
now numb
matters little childhood
now broken
Matters least innocence stolen
forever lost
as forced intrusions, crude invasions,
desecrate unfolding sacred spaces
the empty victor’s gain,
the victim’s pain, our collective shame
Now she carries a new life in her, her child,
herself a child, drenched in confusion,
12, 13 seasons ago,
she was like this life just beginning to form,
now daughter of pain,
tied down by the glue cobwebs of tradition, vice-like
Is this meet the sacrifice of the innocent?
Is it meet that marriage mars childhood
mangling a girl child’s today and her tomorrow
destroying her innocence
in the season of her youth
making a mother of one
in need of mothering
smothering her hopes, happiness and health,
freezing rich potentials
limiting possibilities from unfolding
all because fevered callous hands,
propped by culture selfishly reach out in greed
to harvest and appropriate fruits,
tender fruits plucked in their bud
to feed coarse souls
in collusion with parents
in search of quick gain
on such emptying and wasting plain
deaf to the cries of pain
of childhood smothered,
of dreams denied
** raw…will refine later – the subject is a delicate and very painful one**
Reflections 