Tuesday, 31 May 2016

HUNGER IN HEAVEN poem by Simpa Omoluabi



Hunger in Heaven

Dagga the poet recalled a folktale to me…
It wasn’t just a recall for the recall was the essence of the folktale
The essence of it in our social-political plight
It was concerning an ancient quest the birds and the tortoise made to heaven 
An ancient folktale and I here elucidate on the words of Daga the poet.

Of course we all recall it so happened
The birds and the tortoise made a heavenly quest
When hunger and poverty bedeviled the earthland.
And there was a grand rule the grand rule is the constitution,
The constitution of how the dividends of heaven would be shared.

All the birds whom are the youthful ones the electorates and voters
Donated their feathers to the politician who is tortoise the politrickster
They donated their feathers to tortoise to lead them to heaven on earth 
Because there was so much hunger in the land.

All the birds donated their feathers,
Their feathers they donated to tortoise as votes of confidence
In making tortoise their spokesperson in the government of the kingdom of heaven on earth.
Their feathers were the votes cast in the ballot box
Their feathers were votes of confidence on tortoise the politrickster politician. 
When the birds had donated their feathers to the tortoise
The tortoise now looked more resplendent than all the birds 
The wings of the tortoise was a wing of many feathers
The wings of the tortoise was a wing of many colours
The wings of the tortoise were rainbow coloured, wings that made the Peacock jealous. 

The grand rules had being laid before the race began for the election
Before the running for the seats of government seats in the kingdom of heaven
For government is the kingdom of heaven
Government the supreme place of power in the land is kingdom of heaven;
So before the running of election began the grand rules were stated
And the grand rule on this occasion which was proposed by no other
But the tortoise was that everyone should take names
The tortoise said as for me given that I am a man of the people and for the people
What name should I take other than ‘For all of you’? The tortoise said my name is
‘For all of you’ because I am for all of you, that is my name, that is what I am. 

Then the running for election began for the kingdom of heaven
The electoral race began for the supreme power of government the kingdom of heaven 
And with their feathers the birds the youthful ones voted and did a lot of donation
For tortoise the politrickster politician,
And because of this vote of confidence
This large multifarous donation and vote from the birds the youthful ones
Tortoise was granted an endowment of the most powerful wings among
All those running to win first-place in the seat of government the kingdom of heaven.
Tortoise won the race won the first place and became winner at the end
Of the election race for the chief-seat of government the kingdom of heaven
And all the youthful ones were now glad for tortoise who says ‘I am for all of you’
For they hoped tortoise, whom they knew not was a politrickster,
Would now bring heaven down to their level on earth
The flightful ones the birds, the youthful ones who donated even their body for tortoise
The politician to get to the seat of power which is the kingdom of heaven
Hoped greatly on tortoise to bring heaven down to the level of the languishers of the earth
But they knew not tortoise was a politrickster.
While the hungry birds the youthful hungry ones hoped tortoise would now
Bring down to them heaven on earth, they were not prepared for the shock
Of their lives, when tortoise their spokesman and voice and representative
In the kingdom of heaven began giving them insights into the meaning
Of its name ‘For all of you’.
When tortoise got to heaven the youthful birds approached tortoise as to the bounties
Of the kingdom of heaven and they undoubtedly hoped tortoise would speak
Forthe good of all since tortoise’s has said to them  ‘I am for all of you’.

In the ancient folktale mother nature the distributor of all things
Brought out the bounties, the delicacies, andevery bit of it mouth watering
And Mother nature said to them, all this is for all of you.
After which the tortoise proceeded in speech ,
‘My country people my country people heard that.
My comrades my comrades did you hear that?’
And the comrades and the country people shouted:
“Yes! Mother-Father nature says it is for all of us!”
And the tortoise responded saying to them; “Again!”
And the comrades and the country people shouted again:
“Yes! Mother-Father nature says it is for all of us”.
And angrily the tortoise retorted:
“You all must be deaf! I say you all must be deaf, deaf as the dead!”
The comrades were shocked! The country peoples were shocked!

Tortoise the politrickster proceed with its speech,
“Mother-father nature did not say it is for ‘all of us’,
Mother-fathter nature said it is is for ‘all of you’,
I hope you’ve not forgotten my name is ‘All of you’ which is short for of ‘For all of you’,
Or what did I say before the race for the kingdom of heaven began,
I said I am for all of you’ and I am ‘For all of you’ which in short is also ‘All of you’
And that is what I said I am ‘For all of you’ or in short ‘All of you’,
And Mother-father nature said very clearly that every heavenly delicacy here is for
‘All of you’”. 

It was largely a matter of hunger for the birds, the youthful ones the electorates
For there was severe hunger in the land and they took to the path they thought
Would alleviate their hunger, by donating even as much as their body parts
For tortoise the politician, but on arrival at heaven where there is plenty
Plenty which was meant to be judiciously shared for all 
By the grand rules which is the constitution already manipulated before hand
To the dismay of the birds who went as far as donating their body parts for tortoise
To the dismay of the birds while tortoise the politrickster reigned there was hunger in heaven,
Tortoise for whom they donated their body parts.

Tortoise the politrickster enjoyed all the heavenly things
To the continuation of severe hunger, hungriness and starvation of the birds
Even in heaven where there was plenty they experienced hunger in heaven
All because it was tortoise in the heavenly seat of government,
The birds who had made tortoise resplendent suffered hunger in heaven
Suffered hunger amidst plenty, so there was massive hunger in heaven. 

The tortoise who goes on the mount for more than an
Immeasurable length of time such that we fall asleep
Even to the sleep of death, the tortoise would remain on the mount wishing to die there,
Never wanting to dismount from the position of heavenly pleasures.

The feathers the birds had voted and donated for the flight of the tortoise
In the running for election in the running for office, these feathers
Were glued  to the back of the tortoise, and the glue that glued the feathers
To the back of the tortoise after a while would wear off, the while
It would take the glue to wear off, this duration of time it would take the glue
To wear off is the duration for which the votes has entitled the chicanery politician
To stay in office,
The time of the expiration of the glue when the feathers begin to fall off the back
Of the tortoise is the end of the tenure of the elected office holder ,
When the office holder‘s tenure comes to an end; but the hungry birds
Said as a revolutionary prophet said that ‘The kingdom of heaven suffers violence
And the violent shall take by force’, this they said,
For what the tortoise was doing to them was violence.
The birds said ‘we shall not wait till the glue expires for the feathers to fall
But we shall with violence withdraw our feathers from off the
Back of tortoise for the tortoise has our backing no more.
The birds the youthful ones in violent protest not waiting for the end of tenure of the
Politrickster, the office holding tortoise, before dethroning the tortoise with violent protest
From the seat of power the kingdom of heaven.
‘We shall with violent protest take back our feathers from the 
Back of tortoise for the tortoise has our backing no more’;
The birds the youthful ones in violent protest not waiting for the end of tenure of the
Politrickster, the office holding tortoise, before dethroning the tortoise with violent protest
From the seat of power the kingdom of heaven.

The birds ripped their feathers from the back of Satan the tortoise the politrickster
Politician.
The birds ripped their feathers from the back of Satan the tortoise the politrickster
Political office holder, the holder of the seat of power.
And Satan the tortoise featherless was cast from the chief-seat of government
The throne of the kingdom of heaven
And lo Satan the tortoise tumbled down falling from the seat of power
Falling from heaven a falling star a falling politrickster fallen from heaven,
Satan the tortoise divested of its powers cast out of paradise,
The angry hungry birds casting out the tortoise-clan the Satan-clan out of paradise,
Casting out the tortoise-clan out of heaven casting out the Satan-clan out of heaven,
The clan of chicanery and demagoguery cast out of heaven
Before the end of tenure in office and this was because
The birds became angry from being made hungry and kept hungry
By the reign of Satan the tortoise which caused the birds whom are the electorates, 
Who are the flightful and youthful caused to suffer hunger in paradise,
Caused to suffer starvation amidst plenty, so the birds rebelled in heaven
The angels revolted against Satan the tortoise in heaven
And in revolution they cast Satan the tortoise-clan out of heaven
For the birds were tired of thechicanery, demagoguery and hunger in Heaven, 
For when Satan the tortoise is in power even in paradise there shall be hunger in paradise
For when Satan the tortoise is in power even in heaven there shall be hunger in heaven.






Blow Job (rendition)

A rendition of the poem 'Blow  Job' by the author and poet

Blow Job poem by Simpa Omoluabi



Blow Job

‘The kingdom of God is heaven on earth’
So says the divine book of the MORNINGSTARWITNESS

‘The kingdom of God is paradise on earth’
So says the divine book of the MORNINGSTARWITNESS

‘Heaven on earth is the kingdom of God’
So says the divine scriptures of the MORNINGSTARWITNESS

‘Paradise on earth is the kingdom of God’
So says the divine verses of the MORNINGSTARWITNESS

4ck all religion that promises heaven after death
Embrace the revolution that promises the kingdom of God on earth

4ck all religion that promises paradise after death 
Embrace the revolution that promises the kingdom of God on earth 

Brothers and sisters our eyes shall witness the Nigerian apocalypse
Our eyes witness the Nigerian apocalypse
Brothers and sisters let us enjoy this rhythm of apocalypso

See me see ebony wonder O see me looking in toto
Ebony wonder seriously in toto could the Queen
The first ladybe better looking in toto than yours o ebony wonder?
This fine wife of the president who wished the children of the suffering masses
Hard-luck on Al-Jazeera TV that the children of the rich and his children
And grand-grand-children keep enjoying the best life and education abroad

4ck all religion that promises heaven after death

‘The kingdom of God is heaven on earth’
Says the divine book of the MORNINGSTARWITNESS

4ck all religion that promises paradise after death

‘The kingdom of God is heaven on earth’
Says the divine book of the MORNINGSTARWITNESS


And I will always remember you and you…
How can I ever forget you?
You who when the government rendered me jobless
You who gave me a blow-job
You who gave me blow-job when the government rendered me jobless.

To you millions of graduates rendered jobless by government
Show gratitude to those who in your joblessness at least got and gave you a blow-job

And to be very sincere and be very candid
The government rendered jobless people is more often than not blow-jobless 

Be careful all you millions that are jobless
In the name of moral cleansing the government might decide that
If you are doing a blow-job
And if you have gotten and are getting a blow-job
You are no longer among the statistics of the millions that are jobless
Since you are doing, giving, getting and have gotten a blowjob. 

All of you whom are still by government rendered jobless
And are yet to get a blow-job, for the sake of caution please stay blow-jobless 
I repeat again, for the sake of caution please stay blow-jobless
Because the Nigeria-wonder is till thy kingdom come
Because the Nigeria-wonder is till the end of days
Because in the name of moral deterrent, spiritual
And religious cleansing of lands the government may wakeup someday and say
Hey! Since you have gotten a blow-job you cannot sincerely claim you are jobless
Our undercover agents know all of you that are blow-jobless

Do you think this is impossible in a country
With an unwavering belief for ritual-killing of human beings
In the name of money-rituals performed by
A constellation of fraudsters and gangsters
In this darkness of massive abject poverty caused by government neglect


Do you think this is impossible in a country
With an unwavering belief for ritual-killing of human beings
In the bid to acquire powers spiritual aegis performed by so called leaders
Whom make a constellation of financial and political monsters
In this darkness of massive abject poverty caused by government neglect


Do you think thisis impossible in a country
With an unwavering belief in holy water and miracle services conducted
By the ministerial mammon constellation of ministers
If you must get a decent job and be rich
In this darkness of massive abject poverty caused by government neglect

All of you whom are still by government rendered jobless
And are yet to get a blow-job, for the sake of caution please stay blow-jobless 
I repeat again, for the sake of caution please do stay blow-jobless
Because the Nigeria-wonder is till thy kingdom come
Because the Nigeria-wonder is till the end of days
Because in the name of moral deterrent, spiritual
And religious cleansing of landsthe government may wakeup someday and say
Hey! Since you have gotten a blow-job, since you do blow-jobs
You cannot sincerely claim you are jobless
Our undercover agents know all of you that are blow-jobless

But whenever the government implausibly dares to do this mind you
It is a trick of moral purge under a satanic government
To hinder the jobless and future jobless further jobless
From ever getting or ever doing even a blow-job
For even that itself if they can contrive it
They would do for to render the poor blowjobless
For to deny the underprivileged poor even a blow job

‘Heaven on earth is the kingdom of God’
Says the divine scriptures of the MORNINGSTARWITNESS

Embrace the revolution that promises the kingdom of God on earth

‘Paradise on earth is the kingdom of God’
Says the divine verses of the MORNINGSTARWITNESS

Embrace the revolution that promises the kingdom of God on earth 



copyright 2016 Omoluabi S. Simpa

Monday, 9 May 2016

REVOLUTION OF THE BIRDS by Simpa Omoluabi



REVOLUTION OF THE BIRDS

THIS REPUBLIC OUR REPUBLIC is the title of a poetry collection by AJ. Dagga Tolar, a collection of poems largely about a brief period of government of a onetime president of Nigeria.  One major thing about the period of rule of this late man is that it clearly revealed the docility of the youth of this nation as to their desire for ‘change’, although this government has been gone for over four years before this current dispensation of Mohammed Buhari in whose name during the 2014 electoral campaigns was made the cry of ‘change’, the cry of ‘change’ which was thoughtlessly flung here and there from mouth to mouth as to been desired and envisaged in the person of MohammhedBuhari given the options of candidates during the 2014 general/presidential elections, but this was nothing but a blind envisioning. I remember clearly on the day of the election one of the things I posted on the facebook social media while others were also making posts was that ‘abstention’ was also an option. I simply wondered why the post sort of refused to show up; anyway if it had shown up how much wouldit had done for the generality?I now call it to the consciousness of the Nigerian people, that for your own goodif the candidates accredited for an election are not up to the standard of being able to deliver the drastic change you are seeking based on general assessment from your everyday arguments with friends and others pre the election then do know it that ‘abstention!’ is a beautiful option: all that one or more than one of you have to do is rend the air with a good scream or shout of ‘abstention!’, or wear a shirt clearly stating ‘abstention’.
In usage of one of AJ. DaggaTolar’s expression  ‘failed dead past’, an expression in one of the poems of the collection THIS REPUBLIC OUR REPUBLIC, I hear say it is clear that if the youths of this country knew a thing or two about been prepared for revolutionary change abstention would have been the right course to follow at that point in time to stall against the spirit of the ‘failed dead past’ coming to rule, because having experienced OlusegunObasanjo a spirit of the ‘failed dead past’ it was clear that going on with the presidential election of 2014 the probable chances was high that MohmmaduBuhari also a spirit of the ‘failed dead past’ would ascend to the throne; for the youths to have seen ‘change’ in the spirit of the ‘failed dead past’ which is in the person of MohammaduBuhari was  simply nothing but a desire born out of not wanting to be responsible and contributory to that ‘change’ clamored for, because the truth about the Nigerian youth is that they are looking towards a revolutionary government and this was blindly envisioned in the person of MuhaamaduBuhari, and this is purely ridiculous as we can see.  Dagga Tolar’sTHIS REPUBLIC OUR REPUBLIC was largely about the brief dispensation of a president which in Dagga Tolar’s poetry passed for the ‘sickening one’ whom in refrain he sang the heart of this president as the ‘Public heart of Love of the Sickening One’, an expression which captures the well meaningfulness for the public good on the part of this presidential personality but of course as we know he was physiologically having a hard time. I come to the issue of this one time president because his tenure of presidency clearly showed the docility of the youths of this country. Am I part of these youthful persons? Yes of course since the majority is what is used to represent the nature of the group.  Cutting to the chase, the point I am trying to make hereon is that in the face of flagrant and quotidian corruption in all spheres of the country’s government, a situation good enough to stir a general outburst from the youth against the government but somehow the spirit of ‘Satan’ prevailed over the spirit of youthfulness that in this dastard state a good as dead  human being, a lifeless human being ruled a nation of over fifty-million youthful living souls; and somebody dares to tell me the youths of this country are not docile, that I am wrong in saying the youth of this country do not really burn for the ‘change’ they were and are clamoring for and saw in the person of MuhammaduBuhari, for to have seen it in Mohammed Buhari  was a clear-cut display of a lackadaisical and unrealistic approach towards desired ‘change’ which is as a result of the youth of this country, Nigeria, shying away from the fact of not sincerely making it loud and popular talk among themselves in market places, offices and other places of meeting,that we need a revolution, which is because they would not want to shoulder it so they therefore envisage a revolutionary  government, but to envision it on the spirit of a ‘failed dead past’ was the display of the ridiculous nature of our youth in relation to their presidency as it absurdly happened like it was not a strange thing that a dead man ruled a nation of over fifty-million youthful souls for over three months, this period is concerned with the desired ‘change’ by the youths of this nation because this desired ‘change’ has been long hitchhiking on the road before the coming to pass the transition from military rule to civilian rule in 1999, it’s only that the word ‘change’ was sloganized during the 2014 elections in this desired ‘change’ been blindly envisioned on MuhammaduBuhari a ‘failed dead past’.  With apologies to the family of the man whom while dead ruled a nation of over fifty-million youthful souls, I hear say no body dare make issue of the man not being dead but in coma because we knew he had not the slightest chance of even returning as a zombie if zombies are a  fact. If not because of the chicanery of the principalities of darkness that be in this country I see no reason why his wife was put through that political mess as a first lady to keep up the front for their selfish pursuit which was an insult to the memory of that dead man. We all know what this man would have preferred to be done with him in his state of moribund unconsciousness, and this would be nothing short of the honourable thing. The expression ‘failed dead past’ caughtmy attention in the collection of THIS REPUBLIC OUR REPUBLIC, because having read some of the poems at the time I did corresponded with the poet AJ. Dagga Tolarover the few I had read, and in his correspondence back to me he made mention of the popular folk tale about the tortoise who ascended with the birds to heaven which was with the maximum help of the donation of feathers from all the birds to provide the tortoise wings to ascend to heaven. In AJ Dagga’s mention of this he clearly and succinctly stated an oracle, this story of the tortoise is clearly an oracle of democratic ascension by popular support given by people which becomes votes for persons to get into offices to becoming rulers. Based on comments I made on the few of the poems I had read at the time from the collection THIS REPUBLIC OUR REPUBLIC, in correspondence with me Dagga made succinctly this insightful reply in reference to this story about the tortoise, stating that we are yet to behave like the birds who retrieved their feathers from the tortoise, and he made clear that the feathers were the votes of the people. Why did this clear oracular interpretation given by Dagga Tolar in this story of the tortoise attract me to the expression ‘failed dead past’ in this poem of his. First and foremost the birds alongside with tortoise all went to party in heaven, it was an issue of food, an issue of hunger, and hunger is the first motive of any living organism, believe it Jesus knew what he was talking about when he said ‘man shall not live by bread alone’; reason being that our worries are more than that of four footed beasts, but at the very base a common hunger unites us with them.  But then the issue of the feathers and all of them taking names was clear cut as Dagga mentioned that the feathers are the vote of the people which actually brings the politrickster  into office in which is the throne of governance in the kingdom in relative jurisdiction of government, the most heavenly place in the land and when the tortoise got to the heavenly place he did terribly by taking the people for a fool, which as we have with our various political leaders whom ascended to the throne by our various votes and in the light of ‘name taking’ the tortoise had taken the name ‘all of you’ which in our reality of politics in this story being an oracle is when by our vote the elected politician becomes our voice, his or her say is voted to become our say, he or she becomes our mouth piece, even in a foreign land which the visit to heaven represent in the journey of the birds with the tortoise, and the tortoise betrayed their feathery vote of confidence as our politicians have been doing both at home and abroad in foreign countries right from ninety-gbidigbidi-no-date till this date have been doing to the common populace. Before coming to the birds divesting the tortoise of their feathers I would come to the issue of the matter of the ‘failed dead past’ and this is in the biological nature of the tortoise in terms of lifespan expectations of existence in relation to the birds. The birds are symbols of youthfulness, flightful in almost everything and the tortoise  is an animal who has the potential to live for two centuries refusing to die, never wanting to quit while all the birds come and go having been doomed to a short life span in comparison to the possible lifespan of the tortoise, and the tortoise aged as it is ever still desirous to ascend to heaven to vie for the seat of power of the kingdom, and had taken the name ‘all of you’ which is the spirit of the ‘failed dead past’ politician in deceptive campaign for the seat of power and who in the nature of the tortoise can get there only by been aided with the wings of the birds, the birds which are the youthful ones whom are used to their own detriment for political campaigns and political violence and who also get to vote on finding reason in the misleading speeches of the old politician seeking office who is the tortoise ever tricky, slothfulnatured and slothful minded to things of change that would bring about the alleviation of hunger and poverty in the life of the youthful who die continually everyday while he or she the aged politrickster is ever living the heavenly life in the nature of the tortoise the spirit of the ‘failed dead past’ which was what we had in the dispensation of OlusegunObasanjo and we are having in MohammaduBuhari, and nobody dare say there was nothing we could do about OlusegunObasanjo coming on as a civilian president, that would be a lie because it is still the same docility of the youth that allowed of course through an election which is no excuse to write off the docility of making it possible for the military transition to civilian rule to pass into the hands of a tortoise in the person of OlusegunObasanjo a spirit of the ‘failed dead past’. To the expression ‘failed dead past’ I associate the word spirit with it in saying “spirit of the ‘failed dead past’” because it is a spirit in the sense that it is not only the aged ones that get to be as the tortoise, even a fellow of the same relative younger generation could be such which we witness among young persons not more than forty-five years governing as councilors and local government chairmen, and on the presidential level we experienced the person of the ex-president Jonathan Goodluck who is of a different generation from the Obasanjos and Ibrahim Babangidas. Jonathan in the spirit of the ‘failed dead past’ did rule, which shows also that the tortoise is one who was once a commoner or anonymous fellow who having not been in a given political office presents himself as one to be for ‘all of you’ the epithet of the tortoise, but on getting there he or she assumed the style of leadership of the tortoise the spirit of the ‘failed dead past’.
The youthful of the nation are not hungry enough for revolutionary change because this brings me to the birds making it clear to the tortoise that he or she the tortoise has lost their vote of confidence, and they did not go just talking about it, but in anger divested him of their feathers because they were hungry enough to express their anger against a slothful, demagogic and politrickster tortoise the ‘failed dead past’, and what did the birds do if not do in fulfillment of the visionary declaration of Jesus Christ when Jesus Christ declared ‘I see Satan fall like lightning from heaven’. Why would Satan fall like a lightning from heaven, Satan whose wings more than any other of the heavenly beings supremely spreads eagle than anyother if not that it had lost its wings, this purely shows the picture of the Mexican legend Quetzalcoatl splendid feathered, which by nature given its specie is not naturally endowed with feathers to which as poet in mythopoesis I say the legend Quetzalcoatl got its splendid feathers, looking more splendid than all the birds,  got it like the tortoise in the feathery vote of confidence by the birds, and then alas the given Quetzalcoatl with a contagion of corruption in Jesus’ visionary declaration passes for the Satan falling from heaven, Satan the fleeing serpent in the nature of a clan of corrupt Quetzalcoatl that has been divested of its splendor, cast away, chased out, debased from the throne in overthrow been drove by a drove of revolutionary birds or angels if you may. The youths whom are the birds tired of hunger and the all what not of lies, chicanery, and scheming of the Satan a corrupt Quetzalcoatl of a tortoise who is a spirit of the ‘failed dead past’, these birds in their hunger therefore cast out tortoise the Satan from the throne to the earth just as Jesus Christ did say ‘I see Satan fall like lightning from heaven’, the Quetzalcoatl divested of its feathers in an uncontrollable fall, the fall of the tortoise. Statistics has shown the average Nigerian eats no more than a dollar per day, and we have a president with whose senators take earnings per month that runs absurdly in the millions, while all past president earn twenty-three million naira monthly for their spirits of the ‘failed dead past’.
In economic measurement the appropriate and first item to measure the economic situation of a country is the amount of food per three-square meal on the table of the common individual in the society; like the birds that became hungry enough to cast out the dis-splendoured Quetzalcoatl Satan the tortoise from the throne of the kingdom therefore dethroned and debased, when shall the youths be hungry enough to cast out the never wanting to leave but to die on the throne tortoises in power, scheming cunning serpent tortoises on the throne whom are the spirits of the ‘failed dead past’?  Come what may, I see Satan, the corrupt Quetzalcoatl, divested of its feathers by the angels, by the birds the tortoise divested of its feathers and the spirit of the ‘failed dead past’ Satan the tortoise falling a falling star overthrown in heaven by the revolution of the birds.

©2016Omoluabi S. Simpa