ANTS IN A BEEHIVE
By Efe Ogufere
Hello World, Riddle Me This.
One world, one race, a forgotten
notion
Set free, the mental chains we bear
weigh heavier still
An eroded mind with all its virtues
leached.
This hive is big enough for both spe-
cies, can you not see?
You keep the rainbow in all its gaudy
glory
Save me the dirt and earth below my
feet.
You keep the stars; they are too bright
for my eyes.
This is the Ugly Duckling Theory.
While your wings shudder, stutter and
then flutter free
I will walk your earth, eat your dirt and
climb your walls
Listen to distant words, spoken in hasty
thirst by a Reporter from Zaire.
These melanin strings have held us
together, as old and as young as
forever.
Are you color blind?
Have you lost your mirror?
We are all as black as the humus hid-
den deep within the earth!!
Who have I become, what stories do I
tell the world?
When Xenophobia made me kill a
brother with a skin blacker than mine
Is your mind so over-colonized that
you are neck deep in its illusion?
With your nose rounded and risen to
the sky, brandishing a whip.
Is this what you wanted? Do you want
applause?
My troubled thoughts walk gingerly on
fiery coals
Ironic, she christens her daughter
Hope with promise in her eyes.
Only to be wretched from cuddling
arms at a time when dreams are wide
awake and realities are fast asleep.
This terror we fed and bred has nur-
tured and spread
The Black Queen is losing all her knights
in the constant struggle
Even pawns must take up arms and
stand guard.
Fighting tooth and broken nails for our
little damsels in distress
When will this chaos cease?
...Hello World, Petty thoughts.
INCOMPLETE
By Efe Ogufere
A million bits and pieces of me
All scattered across the earth, my
Hocruxes
Hidden in broken fragments and unfin-
ished art
In every missing link along the canvas
A sketch that’s not quite finished
Putting pen to paper I drew her once
Uwa, with all her curves and lovely
edges
Not her face though, I could not get
that right
She pleaded and chided, urging me
to finish the piece
I could not bring myself to complete it
I was too scared to get it wrong, to
make a mistake
Why tiptoe through life to arrive safely
in death?
Now I sit through the night heavy
laden, reminiscing
Regretting the lines undrawn, words
unsaid, thoughts unshared
I poured my heart on that pad with
tears and a pen
A piece of me lays Incomplete, for-
ever lost with that sheet
Others remain unattended; a weep-
ing child, a broken smile
They haunt my dreams and keep me
wide awake
They all deserve to be finished, don't
they?
A dying rose, a wandering stranger,
melancholy is my ally
With words I hope I will, put these rest-
less thoughts to sleep
Righting my wrongs by writing what I
should have drawn
However hard I try, for the face of the
beauty unsketched
Meditation by Nonso Nduanya, 2015 (Oil Pastel)
56 •
The Lion King
• April - June 2015
Arts
| Poetry
