Walk with me and I’ll show you a desert,

A ghost of a green land,

Where the rivers have turned into mirages.

I’ll show you a ship sinking deep down the sea,

On whose deck, justice had once held hands with humans as lovers do.

I’ll show you a community where the rain falls on selected farmlands,

And the truth is diagnosed of rickets,

In a bent stance, on the edge of kicking the bucket.

Did you hear about the miracle of Lady Justice,

Who wields a sword on one hand and a scale on the other,

Whom for centuries long had been blindfolded,

Keeping her blinded to status and injustice?

Well, the green papers have cured her sight.

She now entertains the rich as they feast at her table,

A dreadful sight for the poor who have to struggle for crumbs.

Her doors still seem open to all,

But know, it’s a trap to rip apart the unknowing tattered’s gall.

Her children in wigs, wield knives and daggers albeit with smiling faces,

As they make deep friendly cuts and bruises on the destitute.

Echoes of the rich’s laughter constantly fill the room we call courts,

As expressions of power and wealth leave the oppressed in a gathering gloom.

 

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Benjamin Oku hails from Cross River State, Nigeria. He currently resides in the state’s metropolis, Calabar, where he is undergoing a B.Sc  in Genetics and Biotechnology, in the University of Calabar. Benjamin writes sporadically and when he is not writing, he plays piano, designs a web or goes sight-seeing.

Photo Credit: Photo by Bruno Feitosa from Pexels