Ode To Hunger By Prof. Niyi Osundare

Hunger walks the streets

With a retinue of naked ribs

Agbaga!, Hunger walks the streets

With a retinue of naked ribs

Behind him a legion of tax-gatherers

Bearing bleeding curses and flaying whips

 

Yam’s new name is “Mafowokanmi”*

Bread has raced past the laborer’s reach

Yes, yam’s new name is “Mafowokami”

While bread has sprinted past the laborer’s reach

There is no written law in this land

That desperate Want can never breach

 

Rumbling stomachs, dizzy motions

Sleepless eyes at war with the clock

Say, rumbling stomachs, dizzy motions

Sleepless eyes at war with the clock

Kwashiorkor children parade the roads

In a land beyond shame, immune to shock

 

A desperate mother gives up

Her baby for a bag of rice

Eewo**!, desperate mother gives up

Her baby for a bag of rice

Her only iro*** flutters in the wind

Held together by a league of lice

 

In this land of blind and soulless rulers

Hunger walks the streets, a cold, oblivious Emperor

Say, in this land of blind and soulless rulers

Hunger walks the streets, a cold, oblivious Emperor

To the few who have, this is a rich, caring nation

To the many so deprived, it is nothing short of a gigantic error

 

*Touch-me-not

** wrapper won by women

*** Abomination!

END

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