SYMBOLISM: "WE ARE ALL GHOSTS" BY AKAN ESSIEN

We wander

lost like

the panderers

floundering

to plunder

thunder.

We are all ghosts

who look like goats

sniffing pots

covered with soot

Our will to live

is like a cauldron

of leaves

neither living

nor dying.

© AKAN ESSIEN

-Uyo, Nigeria 

The poem presents human existence as lost, directionless, and almost lifeless, comparing people to wandering ghosts. It uses animalistic and haunting imagery to show how people move through life without true purpose or clarity. Ultimately, it suggests a state of in-betweenness—neither fully living nor completely gone—capturing existential emptiness.