"Beast of all nations" by Abada Ebruba Anita

They came in a subtle manner,

Hovering around,

Like vultures to a corpse,

With disguised subversiveness,

They marched towards her,

Seemingly a charade with no clue,

Yet, succinct beneath the garment of succour,

But this time in a haughty manner,

Bathed in terror and overflowing libido

Creeping creatures they were:

with claws and canines;

sneering and groaning;

croaking and screaming:

"Let's have her; let's have her!!!"

Yesterday,

A child of 10 she was,

Innocently conceived by mother earth,

Beautiful,

Brave,

And tender,

Planted among the offspring of earth,

Her hair, like a cascade,

swept off earth's greatest sin,

Her eyes, like a cluster of stars,

shining in the darkest of times,

Her lips knew no lies,

And her heart denounced sin.

But today,

Upon her 10-year old soul,

Dwells a shredded old body:

Used and abused;

Debased and devalued;

Altered and deflowered;

Against nature's will,

She cried and struggled,

Yet, they had their way,

Alas!!!

A child has mothered a child,

What Malheur!

Crested thus upon her innocent memory

is a fountain of disquietude,

Erected on the quicksand of pain –

pain inflicted on such tender frame.

She laid feebly on the stretcher

like a piece of rag,

She groaned in pain,

Amidst the stagnant river of blood,

A river whose flow knows no end,

Choked beneath her breath,

she grasped for O 2

H...E...L...P

Oh mother earth

rid earth of them

these beasts of all nations

Abada Ebruba Anita is a 400-level student of the Department of Foreign Languages, University of Benin, Benin City, Edo State.