POETRY OF CONSCIOUSNESS: "FIRST BLOOD SHED" BY SULAIMON KHALID

Not long after the rope on our neck was loosed

Some men gathered

With their fingers on desk

Drafting how to pickpocket the power

Legs came together

Marching

Some set north

Some jog to south

All with arms on their waist

And fire on sleeve of their caps

With the aim of bringing power baton

To their barracks

Fight begins between walls

Broke bridges

Shake jungles

And set leaves ablaze

Mother think not twice

Before leaving son behind

Father think not

Of daughter’s feed

Before leaving home for bush

Childrens forget

Their parents are crippled

Leaving their survival

On their palms

After days mount days

To months

After painting polls

Waters

And land with liquid red

And refilling dry streams

With tears

Aguiyi Ironsi flag was raised

© SULAIMON KHALID

- Nigeria

The poet persona laments the bitter disunity that revolves in Nigeria. The speaker says how leaders begin to fight one another after reaching independence from colonial masters. Still, the land raise her flag in pains.