Poet-Today ~ Peter Kwange ~ The Arts-Muse Fair

Pic: Aminu S Muhammad

THE END IS GONE

If you hunger and thirst

You are still alive!

Those who kissed

the lips of death

are raptured!

They are the smoke

we saw leaving for oblivion.

They are in a fortress!

They are the ones

With soft skins

Wet lips

And new lives

If you feed and sleep

If you love and want

to be loved

then, you are a soul

wondering in purgatory!

If your country have gods

of nepotism and treachery

then, you are a wall

waiting to be broken!

The end is gone!

Every preacher in this face

is a god!

They have sweet lips

And bitter tongue.

and these gods are busy

seeking for slaves and servants.

Give me a coin

you'll be

two times richer

than Dangote.

Or

give me two coins

and you'll be

ten times richer

than king Solomon.

This are the words

Of a preacher.

The end is gone!

Those who gathered riches

gathered enough!

Like the generals in North and West

Until they became too poor

to buy a ticket

to heaven

if there is

heaven

BUFFALO

Time is a jailer

And we are prisoners

But,

for some moments

In life

We live in many prisons

Each prison is a bridge

to another prison

Let me take you

to one.

See this picture!

This one!

It is a frame of memoirs

From secondary school.

To those we wore

The same size

of shoes

Hear this!

 I won't mention

the names of the

Victims we've slaughtered

with renaming.

But to those

Who understand

the ways of the winds

Understands the voices

of the trees!

We renamed a character

because she was too fat

and annoying!

We called her

Giwan Talba!

If you have seen

the ex-governor's elephant

And to the big dog!

He is a teacher,

Heavy on the ground

and wicked

We called him

Uncle buffalo!

Uncle buffalo!

ABYSS

My mind is a thick forest

Day and night

I hear sounds of

The singing owl.

Whistling howls of calamity

I am a tree in the woods

Every tear I cry

Is a falling leaf

From a branch.

*****

PETER KWANGE is a spoken word artist and a poet who is currently studying Mass Communication at Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai. He enjoys photography and painting. He is the author of ‘Deflowered’.  KWANGE'S poems have appeared in Thebrillantinaproject and on Africanwriter.com. His poem "SHE'S NO LONGER CLOSE" made the top ten PIN 10-Days poetry challenge in January, 2017. Peter Kwange is a member of the Hill-Top Creative Arts Foundation