''Through me you enter the city of woe
Through me you pass into eternal pain
Through me among the people lost aye,
ALL HOPE ABANDON YE WHO ENTER HERE''
Dark black streets flood with yellow pus,
Red-hot blood drips down the stinking walls.
A wounded kob speeds past a starving crestfallen crane,
A cloud of dust........
Tattered drums, coughing children and rotting grain,
Footprints of the best dancer who never leaves the stage.
Kakoma cries to God,
''we lay the future in thy hands''.
Fat swine swim downstream the Nile
Belching, grunting and making love.
Piglets and mole-rats drag the book of laws
Deep down the tomb of the living dead,
A place where the just are condemned.
The serpent seats on his golden throne
''for Satan and my country''
His disciples patriotically sing.
He pronounces judgement upon the saints
And crosses their names out of the book of life.
Death is the price they pay,
For virtue in this country is a great sin
And the wage of such a sin is death.
The ground is dry and barren,
Crops no longer yield any fruit.
Guns and ammunition have taken the place of food,
More weapons instead of hospitals and schools!
Arrest warrants and birth control pills,
For us who raise not our thumbs
And on our faces, bare not the yellow mark of the beast!
- Author: Bernard Gabriel Okurut (Pseudonym) ( Offline)
- Published: June 29th, 2021 14:33
- Comment from author about the poem: ''All hope abandon ye who enter here''.
- Category: Sociopolitical
- Views: 18
Comments1
Nice to read such an encouraging piece. May peace find it's way into your writing one day.
Thanks, I am compiling an anthology of satirical poetry..... It is my way of challenging political violence, misrule and injustice in Africa ... and Uganda in particular. All the poems in this anthology are written with a heavy heart.
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