For Chima
How, with the same gasp they declare
This life vanity,
They mock those who choose its flip side
I vowed not to sit with those who want
To kill your cadaver
They were not there when sweet chirrups
Became a cacophony of strangulating sound
I was!
When the petrichor became a chokin pungent odour
I was!
Little do they know of your hiraeth battle
I do!
The only one who believed in you was no one
You had long ‘left’ this vale of tears before you LEFT
No one’s alive whose only home’s his torn-strewn heart
No one’s alive whose only companion is
His lonely self
For life is not the effortless activity of breathing
In and out
It is not the luxury of going to bed and rising
Life is fulfillment
It is the reverberating serenade of laughter
Overflowing from the strings of the heart
And lingering long after it is struck
Life is the glowing embers of achievement
Fanned by a price-tag-free companionship
It is the gentle pat on the back that jolts one
From reverie
Sending shivers of joy down the spine
See them seated and howling abuses at you
How your action was a testament to cowardice
And how your Pilot will send you to eternal
Damnation
Just as if they have a say in who gets what
On the day of CALL.
I know you are resting
Do so in peace!

Otunne, Justice Ndubuisi