"Bullets from our mouths" by Michael Adaeze

Those gallant men had guns with the sharpest triggers

Shrapnel and machetes from the keens of the finest potters;

Our men had clubs

And we had nothing except our mouths.

So when they touched their triggers

Or raised their machetes to land on us

Like corn to be cut at harvest time

We released bullets from our mouths

And it hit the life dots in their hearts

We called them ewu awusa

Tozo

Nama

And those that gave us out for cups of salt

We called sabo

They took our fathers and shot them in the head

They took the purity of our sisters and made us watch

They ripped the bellies of our pregnant wives

Pulled our sleeping fetus from there sacs

And tore the cords between mothers and children

They peed on our old ones

And disjointed our brothers before our eyes

They took everything from us

But didn't take our mouths

So when they opened their guns on us

We opened our mouths at them

We gave them curses

We shot them back

We spat on their faces

And most of all, we cried

Michael Adaeze is a 300-level student of Arts Education, Faculty of Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu state.