Ostracan Heroes
“the sky is still flushed in the face,
the rains will not come soon”
said the sweet-toothed seer
who swam in sorrow and reeked
of sins beyond the blood of the lamb
so we sprinkled our sweats
prodigally on our cotton-mouthed
field whose crops waved naively
to a flight of famished birds
hovering, chirping and flapping
their wings, seeking to see
our black backs in a hurry
the seer dined with death at dusk
and the rains came at first crow
flushing all flowery memories
of our crops sipping our sweats
to weather the days of drought
on our crops’ consummation,
the birds beckoned, colours coated,
preached and preached and pushed us
gently gently to the path of the perfidious
carved for them—our ostracan heroes
…………….
Frank Eze resides in Ibadan, Nigeria. His poem "IJE: I" was shortlisted for the annual Korea/Nigeria Poetry prize, 2016 edition. His poems have been published on 'Storried', 'COAL' 'WritiVision' and other online journals. Frank Eze is passionate about art, especially poetry.