HEAR THE CRY OF OUR COUNTY!

I seem to have trouble writing,
I have to hold my pen with both hands
To manage intelligible scribbles.
As I pause to wipe my eyes every now and then
To control tears threatening to flood my writing pad,
I whisper a question to you Fellow Countymen,
Don’t you hear the cry of Our County?

Why would people
Who speak the same tongue,
Who have eaten soil together,
Who’ve lived side by side,
Who’ve lent and borrowed
From each other sugar and salt;
Turn against one another
And disown one another?
Hear, O ye Fellow Countymen
The cry of our County?

Our county is crying,
The innocent have turned against one another
Plundered, killed and maimed
For reasons they can’t say,
As the eyes and ears stand by
Waiting, may be, to see
The streets turn into streams of blood:
Don’t you hear Fellow Countymen,
The cry of our county?

Our County is crying,
What with green twigs-chewing zombies
Filling our streets!
Our poverty stricken schools
Churn out poverty stricken minds
And have become grounds
For imparting negativity and scandal mongering expertise,
You need not go beyond facebook
To get the evidence for the rot,
The wasted minds and wasted dreams.
Don’t you hear Fellow Countymen,
The cry of our County?

Our County is weeping
Fellow Countymen,
A whole generation’s wasting away
The verandahs and alleys are getting clogged
With semi-literate youth,
With no education to be gainfully employed
Nor family wealth to inherit
A time bomb it is, ticking away
And with crafty businessmen on the prowl
Ready to supply twigs, hashish and their cousins,
What a mighty bomb that would be!
Don’t you hear Fellow Countymen,
The cry of our County?

Our county is weeping,
A whole generation’s going to waste
As parents blame teachers,
Teachers the parents,
Leaders the parents and teachers,
Our streets and villages are flooding
With people whose claim to education
Is only acquaintance with the inside of classrooms.
Don’t you hear Fellow Countymen,
The cry of our County?

Our county is wailing,
Don’t you see Fellow Countymen?
As we engage in expensive clan games;
Our beautiful landscape,
The vast natural and human resources
Are going to waste.
And with uneducated lot at the helm
Who are easily swayed by educated goons,
Do we have time to spectate?
Don’t you hear Fellow Countymen,
The cry of our County?

Our County is weeping,
Weighed down by the sins
Of its educated sons,
Their indifference, betrayal and self centeredness.
Don’t you hear Fellow Countymen,
The cry of our County?

Our County is sobbing,
Our County is crying,
Our County is wailing:
For unrealized potential,
For misused talents,
For wasted dreams,
For the blood spilt
And the vast sins.
Can’t we wake up Fellow Countymen?

Reviews

[Marie]

A good poem, very eloquent in telling of your country. It is revelent to my country too, and probably to many others.

[Bidu Ibrahim]

Written for my county; however, it may be relevant to other places and people too.