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.

Gone Baby Gone

Like Van Gogh`s starry night
Am starring into the night
Stars in constellations and galaxies, so far away
Twinkle with disappearing luminance
The air all around is full of incense
Making me to reminisce
The good, gone old days
Of big promises of immortal love
Of olive oil cascading down your torso
But now it is not so
I am like a devil falling
Fallen into an abyss of heathens
Clouded and darkened by sin and herecy
Overflowing with hate and untold suffering
But deep in my heart
I am harbouring
The sunlight days of our lives
The fun we had down at the coast
It is the good memories
That keeps me going
Every day I relive, the best moments
The worst, I hate the torment
So I have engulfed it
With fantasy and lies
That you are still here
But baby you are gone.....

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I wish I could forget
But like maple leaves in spring
Your memories come flowing
I hear your whisper
I feel on my body your caress
I recount you laughter
Looking up into the night
I see that twinkling star
And know that you are still here

Christine

Christine

This is to you my love

To tell you all in my heart

Known only to God above

I can’t stand to get hurt

Oh my gentle dove

I need you close, to my heart

Or I will starve

My sweet Christine

To me you are still hot

Like a girl who is sixteen

I can’t write like Winston Churchill

That sweet letter to Clementine

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But I can write you a love poem...

This poem

And stand all the waiting

For a piece of your love

Even if it will take forever

I will give up never

Tears sparkling your brown eyes

Makes me utter no lies

You brighten my life

Like a night full of fireflies

I want you pretty close

Just for once…

Here have this rose

Its fragrance is like our time

Short, sweet yet memorable

But love is priceless

Like the Mona Lisa

Strong, yet delicate

Like the tower of Pisa

I recall your gentle touch

Your sweet little words

Your protection like a safety hatch

If life was poker

Then you are the winning card

All along I have been a joker

Ending up this sad

But I have got to be real

Like a rocker

And tell you what I feel

Christine...

You are the best thing

That ever happened to me