POETRY

Carrot and stick for Dummies

“Off with their heads!”

That single lengthy proclamation

By the heartless Queen of Hearts

Spells doom for many a pawn.

 

“And they’re off!”

The mindless mob follows its ‘Church mind’ –

‘Bandwagon syndrome’ getting the best of it

As it hurtles headlong to the bottomless pit.

 

“So far, so good!”

The tale of a thousand years of pain.

Back-breaking work done under sun and rain,

Homeless ones building temples for Nefertiti’s people.

 

“Are we there yet?”

The children ask their childish fathers.

The promised land looks like it will be farther

Than ‘beyond the Red Sea’, as they’d been told.

 

“Que sera sera!”

The slogan of sluggards going to sea.

Woe betide he who even attempts to fathom

That he can scoop a drink from a well with his hands.

 

“Save, my lord king!”

The cry of the afflicted and dying.

“Why die when you can choose life?”

“Why merely survive when you can fluorish?”

 

“All will be well!”

The proclamation from the heavens –

“Let him have it if he desperately wants it!”

“Let her keep it since she chose it!”

 

Kunle Oyedele

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