"Rain upon us" by Francis Annagu

Below peaked crests of riveted rocks,

Bare-feet,

We trek through deserted lands,

The dehydrated soil, mired,

The unbearing vines, roof-tall,

And thriving seedling of dried and sour Oranges,

Groping on the torrid-teeth

Of the dark, without beacon sun to path,

Or the overpassing breeze from Sahara,

larruped

From thirst to hunger, skelped by plaque,

From ridge to ridge in surmise,

We longed about,

About barren homes bequeathed

To the silence of our children, fingering

To nothingness of crepuscular clouds.

They wondered for rains,

For times of companionship

And, like land loping grave-robbers Probing,

Ripping through the suburb-yards, Seeking,

We tilled out pebble crumps eaten by ants,

Feeble and vain with wounds, we itched

Bled from our blood sucked by the leech.

While under Iroko of memories, we dreamt,

We saw a camp fire we circled in warmth,

There, the chestnut laughter broke on us,

Sown in sand, bulbing from morn

To sun in season blossom, but we dream.

O come rains!

O come rains!

Our harvest baskets are full of pain,

Bare-feet,

Sobbing through deserted lands.

A boy snuffling with flare to sky,

Acrid smell of cracked

Heaven-rumbles thunder in mighty

conjure,

Ocean-noise of rains

Falling…

Into the womb of our languid bones. Upon

eagles’ wings we measure out

our wanderings

And tears, scattered along

Boulevard of famine, now wet

With palm-oil from the sky.

Now we shall hoe our lawn,

While the showers bathe us with love.

We rest under our sun-rise smiles.

Francis Annagu is a 400-level student of Political Science at the Kaduna State University, Kaduna, Nigeria. His poems have appeared in Tuck Magazine, Galway Review, Kalahari Review, Black Pride Magazine, read on Black Satin Radio (an online radio), Poets in Nigeria (PIN). He is from Ninzo tribe in Sanga Local Government.