SOMEWHERE IN SOUTHEAST BY UNDILUTED POETRY

SOMEWHERE IN SOUTHEAST 
. 
. 
This isn't a poem 
It's the chronicles of a nation's chronic disease 
. 
These lines are oceans of tears in a mother's eyes 
How her home became a test-room for guns 
Where death breaths his last breathe 
And how it embraces the life of a brother 
Turning his soul to a matter without space 
Emptying his fullness to fill the ground 
That mocked his strength 
When he lost to freedom 
. 
Did you see how the sun 
Displayed her nakedness on the body of women? 
How the ground swallowed their pride 
Choking them with broken memories 
Breaking them into parts that part with existence 
For, how can a mother live 
When death took away her life in her eyes? 
. 
This isn't a poem 
It's the scene of a brother in the pool of his own blood 
. 
They said freedom is the only way 
To set a man free, and give him his dreams 
But how can a man be in bondage in his father's house, 
Where his life became a book with different pages? 
I read it in father's eyes, when his brothers 
Took his blood in their hands 
That, there's only one way to hold unity-by standing as one 
. 
Have you not heard, 
That war isn't a trophy to be won? 
For with victory sometimes comes defeat 
You don't throw stones, when you know 
It would find its way to your sister's head 
You don't bid your mother goodbye 
When you don't know the route to your mouth 
. 
This isn't a poem 
It's the tale of a nation against herself 
. 
Somewhere in southeast 
Is a boy on the street of survivors 
With daggers and spears, fighting his brother 
He said, he wants to be a man 
When men are not made by swords 
But, do you say he's naive 
For wanting to be his home-god 
By walking in the shoe of the brave? 
. 
Somewhere in southeast 
Is death gambling with the soul of men 
playing tricks with their future 
That there is honour in dying at war 
Maybe they weren't told 
. 
Freedom is a state of mind, it doesn't set free 
You live again, by fighting for generations 
. 
This isn't a poem 
It's the voice of home 
Calling a nation, back to her root 
. 
. 
© Olabisi Abiodun Akinwale 
Undiluted Poet 
#UndilutedPoetry