DARK TIMES

I open my eyes to a morning stained with loss
We’ve woken up but we can’t see
There’s darkness and it’s engulfing
Why can’t I see? Is this blindness?
No! It’s tears, it’s running like tap, it won’t stop

We’ve called on Chi ka Chi
We’ve begged Eche and Ugwokeja
We’ve summoned the Diwatas and the Umalagads
Even Thunor turns his face from us
Seems they are ignoring us

It’s all blurry but my brain can process what it is
Ah! My people are littered like chickens
No. It will be inhumane to even kill animals this way
I can’t even tell who is who
The stench in the air; that of a roasted goat

Where is Owoicho? Where is Onyema? I asked?
They are among them, a weak tiny voice replied
I turn to her direction and I’m met with a gaze of hopelessness
Oh my soul! I’m broken. I’m terribly shaken
I look up to the sky but I can’t see nothing, I really can’t see

What have we done to deserve this?
Should we just sit and watch and keep calling on gods?
Can this Pharaoh let us go? No. he has come to kill, maim and destroy
It’s time we stop expecting a miracle and start performing it
We’ve got the power in us; the Almighty put it in there

To men and women, young and old, big and small, it’s time
It’s time we march. It’s time we match their madness with one
It’s true they don’t even care about us; so they will come against us
But, whether we hide or march, we bleed
Either way – we die

Now, I can see clearly, but I choose to shut my eyes
I can’t behold the sight, It’s horrific
I feel it’s our fight henceforth because no one is coming to our rescue
But we are a conquered people, besieged with fear; they made us so
Again, I come on bended knees, Jah do not be silent.

…. Marilyn Ossai