for CHINUA
A star among stars
The big tree has fallen
But nature I blame
For such a blunder
words are tiny
to paint your relevance in my mind.
death has only played his part
but your path is immortal

I know you look down
Up there
Your footprint still draws breath
Yesterday your legacy I saw
your inspirations, your insights.
Concocted on us
The one I cherish, “Poetry”
Okigbo.
is it "Things fall Apart"
that one a global boom

Greatest threat right now
Mistakes leaders disavow
Creating new row

Electrical tape drools on the camera,
and only through a music box

are you half the blue noir
phantom baby—the Mattoid, Mutant in
the Lava Lamp and Madame Choule

are going at it. Slurping, the donkey
crank, a C-Note, Mattoid’s dirty fingernails

on the phonograph; a baby coffin
with a bone picked. The sampler bottle

shattered in Oriental origami, noiseless
as a blue impatient spider on the cusp of….

Pharmacy refills
Along with medical bills
Aiding doctors tills

Kids like me may be bullied, ridiculed
Introverted, seeking sanctuary
Never too old to be fooled and/ or schooled
Disciplinary baggage to carry
Enrolling in (scary) class: primary
Reading Hemingway, picture-book-burning
Graded on performance, functionary
Adjusting to school of higher learning
Returning to head-start more discerning
Teacher grinning at my perfect penning
Earning a recess, classes adjourning
Nervously enrolling, new beginning
Evaluation: complimentary
Registered student, elementary...

I had a thought
The other day
About the things
We do and say

From vicious words
To words of praise
Our acts of love
To our malaise

Why, we as humans
Have such extremes
From mass destruction
To building dreams
BOEMS BY JA 196

Targets those who ail
Making them tread deadly trail
The beastly Blue Whale

NIGERIA

Decades passed
Century crops
Britain delivered
A parcel of hopes
To the greatest leaders
of course
Africa's best political
Workforce

To Nigeria
Africa bound
In Nigeria
Africa bond
From Nigeria
Africa emerged

First citizens
Of the world
Blacks before
Other nations

Our unity
A priority

Yes!

Our diversity
A strength

Yes!

Life

Life is good.
It is all a perspective,
The world is full of people who want to hurt you.
But it's also full of people who want to love you.
The world is full of drugs.
But it's also full of marvelous works of art thanks to those drugs.
The world is filled with shitty ass movies like The Happening.
But it's also filled with tremendous movies like Fight Club.

Misuse undue might
Create crises left and right
Provide reasons trite