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Poem – Pray, tell! (By Agbaakin O. Jeremiah)

Pray, tell!

Who plunged this abominable steel

Into the great Iroko?

There where lesser trees flanked

The surviving relic of the realm.

 

Who shot the gilded eagle

Before it had executed the gods’ task

But like Marathon

Never relished the reward

Save for Nirvana’s nicest niche.

 

Who hurled bombs

To this ancient market

Where the gods send sale-spirits:

The leaf-coated, amiable ‘anajeres’

But, now a gathering of departing spirits

Of those caught in the blast

In their prime.

 

Who slew the rude vultures

Who plucked life from graceful swans

When their time to soar has yet to ripen,

When the thrill of a drift is still in the cocoon.

 

Who dregded the icy Lagoons

At their fiercest rim

And de-god the fifty shrines

Up in the groves.

 

Pray tell, who is this bold?

Who is this daring?

Who is this reckless?

Who is this cruel?

 


Author Bio:


Agbaakin O. Jeremiah, a NIGERIAN poet and campus Editor is a final year law student in University of Ibadan.

He won the maiden Ogidigbo Poetry Prize; and is a six-time runner-up of 2016 Briggite Poirson Poetry Contest.

He is featured/forthcoming on Sentinel Quarterly, Tuck Magazine, B.P.P.C (Loops of Hope) Anthology, Irawo Anthology, PIN Quarterly Journal, Kalahari, Praxis Magazine, Sub-Saharan Magazine, African Writer and elsewhere.