Once upon a time in the city of Jos.

Water clot in my neck…is…/thick knot of tears for Danladi’s mother…

….whose dust filled screams echo in blue black night…long after they both died …ten seconds apart…/ “who will milk the goats tomorrow morning Danladi if you die today…/who will bring Baba’s kunu Danladi…if you die today…/who will wash pebbles at the well with Sundiata… Danladi if you die today.../who will….”

…he could smell her fear…Danladi could…the putrid scent of her shit…her very bowels sending up supplication to the marauders from hell… as she begged for the fire to fall on him first…so…her son would not see her burn…/he could still hear crunch of his father’s skull unfamiliar with the heel of an intruder’s boot…/proud silent death without a word of complaint…

he could still hear…./ “who will take Hajja-mama to the mosque Danladi…if you die today…/how will you go to school Danladi…if you die today…./who will carry Baba’s name Danladi…if you die today…/all life will change Danladi…nothing will be the same Danladi…if you die today….”

I release tears that join the rush of the Benue....let us meet the Niger at Lokoja…and pray at this eternal binding knot of earth and water…for the souls …of all the sons of this our Plateau. 

call to kill a king

Look at us…caught in our own nets.../powerless marionettes…slaves to the rot we bore that now…feeds the sores in our own souls…/how can we exclaim at the salacious words we spoke into our own existence…how can we…deceive our own children…/we beneficiaries of our father’s victories…we have turned from our inheritance…/gifted it to our pallbearers…who now carry righteous spirit of our ancestors as charred refrain of their death songs…. /we rail at the nonchalance of our leaders…/leaking gourd of our fountain head…/oozing suppuration of a false…rotten imagery…close to his death…./what is this we are crying for!!!...../natural order of things is handing us deliverance from…misguided selection…/corroded semblance of a structure once proud….now run aground.../let us realize the possibility within grasp of all who have the slightest will and reach.../and catch a new dream…/leave behind the wastrel heirs of these past years…/find a way to kill this imposter…/and crown a king that this generation can adore.