KWENU! Our culture, our future

We, the Akaliogoli

Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo

Monday, January 23, 2006

With aluminum foils stuffed in our ears

We feigned deafness when Idemili called

In running away from creeping kwashiorkor

We ran into swallowing Ekwensu.

For our bankrupt poetry called emails

Wasted poet ozo we were bestowed.

Men in diapers with disappearing bones

Reawake our dream of a final homecoming

Our distant whispers quench palm-husk candles

Leaving acolyte umunna in the dark.

Squawks of sacrificial chicken remind us

We are now children of a retired God.

Haunted by dirge of missed funerals

We tucked wooded pestle in our pants.

Perpetual drum hums effervescence spell

While we masquerade as Osebuluwa

Plastered on ngidi are claws of diving hawks

Sliced down long ago were our ogbu chi

Still we await expunged reincarnation.

For licking our oil-stained fingers

In front of a bleating corpse

Our loincloth dropped at the market square.

Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo is a New York based freelance writer. His first book, Children of a Retired God, will be published by Iroko Productions.

See also: The Leavening of Sister Philomena

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