TIME

Every second of my time 
I want to think about you 
And each minute 
Spend it with you 
But I can't manage such a feat 
I won't throw in the towel in defeat 
...Just yet 

As every hour of my time 
I smile because of thoughts of you 
Every Day 
I think about a new way 
To try make you feel the same way 
I think of my options to weigh 
But you Overwhelm each instance 
Leaving me in the realm of fantasy 
At the end of the day 
You give me Ecstasy 

Had I, a week with you 
I would make each day count 
Not only in the hands of time 
But also like in the 'Sands of Time' 
I would give up a year 
For a month with you 
If the deal is too good 
A century or partial Immortality 
For a decade with you 
TIME is all i need 
TIME is all I have 
And TIME will be all I had 
To turn you from Reality to my expectations. 

Kamal Ogudah 2012©

FOREVER YOUNG

Old age would make me sinister
Full of wisdom and prone to give negative comments
Which I would defend like a barrister
I would dwell in the past like long gone comets
The future hazy and not guaranteed

Middle age would make me stressful
Full of responsibilities but limited opportunities
All the time I will have my hands full
school fees to pay and teenagers to raise
Calculated risks so that I dont end up a fool

Youth made me born free
Risking everything to fit in
Fully Concious of my apparels and less for the land's decree
Marijuana and alcohol in our young minds we invited in
Fell in love in thoughts and in reality
Broke girl's hearts,as we searched for perfection
Overlooking all the care and their affection
Youth made me self conscious
Tribe ,race and ethnicity I came to discover
Capitalism or communism I chose revolution
It will take time to recover
Because we are polarized along ethnic lines
No nationalists standing in the frontlines
I watched as we bled our flag red
With matchetes choped our peace to pieces
Watched children in IDP camps freezing
Far from warmth of their homes which was scotched and smoking

That is why...
I want to be Forever Young
Innocent with nothing making sense
Play with bees and wasps
Cry and do nothing when I am stung
Smile at strangers, their fingers my tiny hands clasp
I want to be Forever young
Make friends with all kids in my block
Our enemity fueled by toys and sweets
Not tribes and rhetorics from politics
Value friendship and make the bonds tight
And carry that with me to the future
I wanna be forever young. 

Kamal Ogudah 2012 ©

MOMENTS

How brief is the history of time
Losing it a second at a time
This is for those MOMENTS
We shared and forever treasure
For lovers,friends and opponents
Whose love and hate we cant measure
Time ticking away
The tranquility of the air
Priceless we couldnt afford to pay
Lacing it with marihuana aroma
We thought it was fair
Feigning we were suffering from glaucoma
To legalize it, if only in our thoughts
Laughing our innocence away
Discussing politics and revolution
As we sipped those bitter concotions
In our youth of stolen promises
Talking of chances and If's
Of our leaders impunity and dreams
MOMENTS we got to share
That first kiss
That was almost a miss
Too much tongue and...
When we lived and slept poetry
Meeting weekly to read our prose
Sickly weekly from too much alcohol
Partying daily to ear shattering music
Those little MOMENTS
That we thought would last forever
This is for those moments
That I never told you I loved you
And what you meant as my friend
For those moments I never whispered to your ear
''How much I loved you,my little brother''
As your tiny fingers clutched on my fore fingers
Even though you are gone forever
I still recount those MOMENTS
Kamal Ogudah ©2012

LOVE LETTERS

Buenos noches mi querida
As the moon shines bright
The stars twinkling their starlight
I scamper all over the alphabet
Trying to upset
The letters from A to Zee
To come up with those
That will pierce your heart like a bayonet
And leave it bleeding in love
Letters that will take you far
Places rustic and virgin

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Letters that will leave your heart pounding
Like the ground below Xerxes army
Love letters that Paris Used on Helen of Troy
Letters so great that did wage the Trojan War
Letters that took the lives of Hector and Achilles
Letters that dwelt in Che Guevara's heart
And cemented his thirst for revolution and sacrifice
Ma Cherie
I am still looking for those LOVE LETTERS

©Kamal Ogudah 2012

AN ODE TO GAIA

Gaia is weeping
Her heart shredding to pieces
Her voice coarse,no more screaming
Her golden and diamond tears, streaming
Down her face,on every phase
Like the mighty NILE
Flows from 'The Mountains of the moon'
Fathered by the great Alexandrine,Ptolemy
Which unlike then,drips no more
we have sidelined her like a lagoon...
Does to a sole island,Madagascar
Guess our kids will miss HER more
ALL her beauty,our ACTIONS have,faded away
What will we tell them?
We can't lay the blame on them

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Hate that we will always wish
To have her back
Like that beautiful sunset at dusk
Like that mystic aurora on the poles
No one,but us will save our souls
Let's save the trees and rivers
For that's the Future's call
We should abstain from Gaia's destruction
To sustain her for our future's affection

FIFTY YEARS

One, two…
It’s almost fifty
Like the seasons I come back
To haunt you, while you are sitting
In front of the cathode tube
Leaving you on your seat shifting
Is…
My malnourished frame
My born free life, never tamed
My still eyes
Staring straight into the lens
My strange cuisine
Of boiling roots and wild fruits
My sad story
Of poverty and lost property
Hot winds blowing
The earth bled off water
Poisonous snakes prowl
The day gets no shorter

Three, four ,five
It is almost fifty
Inside your newspapers
There is my usual story
Of high child mortality
Lawlessness and banditry
Of fallen fathers and brothers
Of stolen past and present

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Forty six, forty seven
Its now forty eight…
Forty eight years
Of economic marginalization
Disturbing history
And a forgotten people
You owe us justice
For brothers and fathers
Fallen at the airstrip
Their blood
Washed down the runaway
For sisters and mothers
Widowed by your guns

Forty nine, fifty…
Fifty years it is…almost
Since we got independence
All along we are stuck in the past
Successive governments
Have seen us outcasts
Our land
Dry , unforgiving
And pure wilderness
The “Northern Frontier”
How long should we die of hunger?
Get killed by bandits
Lose our children
Due to lack of primary healthcare
This is not fair
No schools
Poor infrastructure…
I can go on and on
Back to the 50 years
That you stole from us.

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My Rebel

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She wears no makeup
Only lip gloss to make her lips glow
She is proud of her hair
Only water relaxes her coarse afro
She scans fashion magazines
Only to mock prices of Gucci and prada
My rebel
Her wardrobe lacks stilettoes
All she collects is converse Allstar
Taylor gang like wiz khalifa
Her idol is Che guevara
All she reads is history and African literature
Her favourite sport is soccer
All she supports is Gor Mahia

My rebel
Knows about African socialism
Like she would have known her colours
Knows Paris for its museum and art
Like she would have known it
For its fragrance and fashion stores
My rebel
Partakes in shots of vodka
Without blinking an eye
Smokes that illegal plant
Every weekend we are bored
And want to get high

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My rebel
I`ll ask for no libel
No matter how you soil my name
I`d never want your tame
Like a bird
I want you free
For your love
I`d do anything even….
My rebel
I promise to love you until time ends.