'Wake up' by Ahmad Abdullah

Wake the king from his slumber

The great black king is asleep

Caught in a nightmare he never wanted to be

He didn’t know he slept too deep

When in his dreams he began to see

Beneath the scope of his visions

His eyes were wide open

Aliens stole from his kingdom but

He never knew if he were awake

When a plague from abyss cut

Like a rake across his cake

The great king sleepwalks

Oblivious to time

And when he talks

His mouth is filled with slime

That muddles the power of his speech

And one by one

His household deserted him

What else could they have done?

While at a whim

They decide to save themselves

Wake the king from his slumber

Let him know he is no longer great

Shout into his ears and use a lumber

Before his kingdom disintegrate

Into fragments of an epic tale

That other kingdoms will sing

To remind themselves of extinction.

The great king in this poem symbolizes the essence of Africa. It personifies the state of African nations as they are powerless while their resources are plundered at will starting with slavery to brain drain.

The poem warns on how this trend will lead into extinction as poverty and corruption and other forms of afflictions like war will decimate the kingdom if we refuse to realise that we the people are the king and should effect positive changes ourselves.