Olobo Ejile //The Gathering of Locusts // Poetry
Olobo Ejile
The Gathering of Locusts
When locusts gather,
when they swarm around a healthy farm,
they do not come to sing lullabies for plants
to grow, they do not come to water them, nor
weed grasses growing in between crops, they
do not care about the farmers, neither do they
care about the farmers’ children, the locusts
are not bothered by their fervent prayers, by the
farmers’ fingers tired of counting prayer beads
in expectation, they do not care about their sweats,
neither do they care about the borrowed seedlings
farmers bury under the ground, they do not care about
the time invested in tendering crops, neither do they
care about conscience, because locusts do not have one.
When locusts gather,
they come to reap where they've never sown,
they feast on plants they've never watered, they
feast on the nation's crops, pillage the nation's wealth.
Every four years locusts will come again, locusts will
solicit for these farmers supports, locusts would pay
in cash and blood to get through to the farmer’s farm,
and when the gate widely opens, these locusts would
swarm in again, gushing into the farmers’ yard, feasting
on the commonwealth. But we cannot turn blind to the
farmers’ accomplice, we cannot say they do not know about
the second, the third, the fourth, and the fifth coming of the locusts.
•
Pill-grimage
We showed them displaced children,
sleeping outside the blunt weather,
We showed them bodies of victims,
dismembered like forgotten cadavers,
We showed them potholes,
aborting babies in our lovers’ womb,
We showed them our education,
crumbling like a falling star,
We showed them our economy,
drowning like a helpless victim,
We showed them our naira,
weightless like a flying kite,
We showed them flood,
raking our dreams away,
We showed them our graduate,
begging for widow's mite,
We showed them exile,
stealing our best brains,
We showed them our electricity,
smoldering like a tired flame,
We showed them bullets,
melting into our soft flesh,
We showed them insecurity,
spreading like a wild locust,
We showed them war,
creeping towards our doorstep,
We showed them our nation's debt,
swelling like a rotten corpse,
We showed them our tears,
brimming the bucket of a nation’s sorrow,
We showed them hunger,
striking our belly to death.
But after all we showed them,
they decide in their hallowed
chambers to subsidise pill-grimage,
& concluded that all we need is fervent
prayers, not within the nation, but across
the sea—where God resides.
•