BEASTS OF THIS NATION

Search no further for hell in sacred Scriptures,
hell is here in my fatherland.
Our acts betray the potency in the words of Jesus,
we do more than he thinks we can.
Let this blood, seven years old,
cry out to heaven as of Abel.
Let Karma hesitate no more to fall on us.
I have killed another human
in between flames and burning tires.
You too have murdered this child
in the silence of your hearts.
So after today's song of lament,
and the pretentious rants on the net,
you would bury your heads in silence
and together we would live as though nothing
happened.
Child! I too, I am evil.
When your wrath is ripe for its fall, spare me not
but for today let me do as others have done
and morn you with words from a sacred song.
***Akor Emmanuel Oche is an Etteh born poet, critic, essayist and

thinker. In 2015, his poem AKE was shortlisted for the Poetrycourt

prize in honor of professor Wole Soyinka at 81. He is a fellow of the

Caprecon Development Foundation UK and a member of the African Haiku

Network. He is also involved with the study of languages that migrated

from the ancient Kwararafa Republic and writes extensively on the

subject. Oche writes from Ajaokuta, Kogi state. Nigeria****