Henry Amami



Amami Henry

RULES OF CHAOS…

Rule, can we ever have you without bias
Or some form of vendetta?

Who levels the field for the Syrian Child?
When would liberation come for the People on the Eastern borders?
Is the ‘Supposed God’ really against the Palestine child
Is the school shooting a question of rules and background check?
And not how we were raised
And how we choose to raise others?

What really are the Odds against Dapchi Maidens?
Like the Chibok girls and the Seeds of the fallen Soldiers
Could it be their choice of forebears or location?
Unlike the Kano Bride and Groom
These are no accident of birth at all, is it?
These are no accident of choice at all, is it?

Like the king and his cheering councils
The sneering crowd knows the way
And where we ought to be
We just do not agree on motives, figures and timing
We do certainly agree on one economical truth
To take a serpent or our debatable ancestor as a pet

O ye rulers of this world
Can the rules at least be debated?
Will there ever be a sigh of relief for the Palestine Child
The lone Syria Child
The distressed Afghan children
The Sudanese on the southern pole, missing arms, losing legs
The deceased school children, the tormented victims and their assailant
The children and widows of the slain Soldiers, Farmers and the Aid Workers
Is there a relief in sight or just sigh in resignation?

O ye leaders of this world
Foisting your ways on humanity
Policies for sale, morals on a penny for two shelves
Can the rules at least be debated?
Beyond the mask of climatic damnation
Who speaks for the seasons?
Who speaks for the trees and rivers?

O ye faith adherents
Why set a rule and play by another
Grace or law? Milk or meat?
Riches, here and now or later in the afterlife?
Can the rules at least be debated?
Beyond the mask of religion
Who speaks for the dumb shoe cobbler in Agidingbi?
Who sees for the blind preacher on transit to Ota?

Beyond the mask of economic domination
By the powers that be
Will humanity ever come to amity, desecrating nature?
Will the rules ever be enough?

-Amami Henry

RUMBLE IN THE SKY...
Don't expect the rain, it won't come!

Call your gods
Appease the deity
Shout to the mountains
It will still be another effort in futility.

Our evil thoughts and deeds are converging to hit us
And this time there will be no shielding.

What shall we then do, if truly there is no escape?

Do we heed the Sun?
Or hid from the Sun?
Do we take this fall gracefully?
And accept that the end of Man is here?

Guided by fear, we gave ourselves to vague faith
While the peddlers keep a vogue appearance

Haven't we seen
The footpath of the other wayfarers?
Children crying, afraid of the dark. Adults fearing the Light.

Haven't we seen
The cracks on the wall?
Bodies’ splatted about. Evidence of man's negligence to man.

Haven't we had
Enough of the puff and the coloured liquors?
Sons of perdition
Daughters of Jezebel
Whose trade in stock clouded with vices.

The King's tribesmen are at it again
Shepard boys with bloodthirsty sheep
Herdsmen or headmen?

Conquered forest
Conquered soul
Our maidens held in captivity
Days to weeks, weeks to months
Months to years and few returned vile and empty.
How do we discern the King's mind from his men's counsel?
Mounting promises of better days
Mounting actions of fierce famine ahead.

Crowded market
Groaning faces
For the buyer, for the seller
Every visit shrinks the table.
Is it that our wares has lost its values or our values has lost its wares?

Even the risen Sun
Bought the change
Harsh on skin, telling on health, tough on purse

What shall we call this change?
A blessing or a curse?
Shall we now wish for the days of old in the new?
Or take Men of old away from the new?

Either way
We that will turn the tide are not yet ready.

-Amami H.

COMMONERS AND DOUBLE STANDARD…
Where is the good neighborliness?
Where is true love and tolerance?
Where is empathy for humanity?

While it is easy for you and I
To point fingers at the insensitivity of our
Political, faith and traditional leaders
And like them, pay lip service to the ills of the society

We fail to make life any easy or bearable
To our neighbours even when we have the chance
We fail to sweep our corners clean 

It is so embarrassing
We don’t like ourselves
We all have stations where we play ‘god’ in the lives of others

We use our position to manipulate people
Just to satisfy our egos and selfish desires
We take advantage of others
To make cruel gains even in their pains, grief
And sorrow and still pretend to be doing them a favour!

Where is the good in us?
When we are so self-consumed
Our concern is ‘I, me and myself’ only

We get irritated by the genuine progress of
Our Colleagues, Friends and Family
We see nothing good in others
And criticize anything that does not gratify our curious pleasures
We talk down our subordinates
And choke them with our puffed egos
We front humility before our superiors
Only to backbite them

And we are so humble, very humble
When we get into trouble
Desperately seeking favour when things are beyond us

Some of us are so arrogant
So extreme, we frustrate and violet the right of the ‘helpless’ that they question their very existence

I nod away in shame
When I see people play god in the life of others
Shame for myself for being unable to help
Shame for the helpless victim
And a bigger shame for the vandal
Who should know that the sun will shine on everything we DO!

-Amami H.


Winter has come for us ALL!

Shout!
The north remembers
And the atrocities of the Good Master
Shall not be lost on The Sons of Harpy

Send a raven
To the Grandmaesters
And the *Hand of the King

Tell them, the Small Council has been infiltrated
Not just by Kingslayers
But by cowards, turncoats, traitors and sycophants

Send a raven
To the high Sparrow
And the high Septon
ASK them what is Seven blessings compare to many curses

Tell them the faith has entered into an unholy alliance with the crown
And there shall be no walk of atonement

At least, not today! Not forever!
The long night looms

Tell them, for all their acclaimed wisdom and their lofty
Many face god, the old and the new
the sacred temple sits atop a wildfire

Send a raven
To the Lord Commander
And the other Commanders

Tell them, the Nightwatch has been infiltrated
Not just by Wildlings
But by cowards, turncoats, traitors and sycophants

Send a raven
To the Archmaesters
And the other Maesters

Tell them, the Hightower has been infiltrated
Not just by Stonemen
But by cowards, turncoats, traitors and sycophants

Tell them the Wall
And the Citadel
Has crumbled and what they have is just the peripherals
And the looming darkness will be longer than they imagined

Send a raven
To all the Lords
Of the big houses
And the smaller houses
Tell them this is no war they could win

Tell them you have seen the uprising in Maiduguri, Bauchi, Potiskum and
Wudil where dragons rains fire on thousands

Tell them, you have seen the Dothraki's
Cross the sea, raid, and massacres
Families in Asaba, Ogaminana, Zaria, Gamboru, Ikorodu, Aluu, Aba,
Chibok, Onitsha, Jos, and Modakeke

Let them know you have seen
The havoc *wreaked by the Faith Militants
In Okene, Mubi, Yola, Gombi, Wusasa, and Sabon Gari, and Ozubulu

Tell them you were there
When the big eyes monster tell a kneeling mother 'go and die'
And the bigger monster 'don't give a damn'

Tell them, you have seen the Freys murder a mother and her five children
at the black Sunday in Ikeja

Let them know you saw
The Madalla blast
Baga massacres and Herdsmen sack towns and villages in Benue and
Taraba

Ask them who account
For the many unaccounted lives lost
In Slaver's bay of Buni Yadi and Gwoza
And in the fighting pits on the wake of Odi massacre

Let them know you were in the crowd

When 'constituted authority'
Constitutes a nuisance

But let them know
Their mistake, arm the youth with a 'modern raven' 
And the polity is never secure
No! Never like before! 

Tell them it is time for true representation and negotiation

Tell them, even the Iron bank negotiate

Let them know
What you saw beyond the Wall

Tell them what you saw at the battle of Blackwater
And the pogrom
And the blockage
Against the harmless
And defenseless Child of the East

Let them know
The real winners of the battle of the bastards

Tell them the Wildlings are humans too

Let them know
The Unsullied have longings too

Tell them, the foreign invaders
And the Iron born for all their wrongs
Have a fair succession plan

Tell them, Winter came for the hyenas, the jackals, the baboon, the Ponzi
schemes, the ritualists, the kidnappers, and it won't spare the sycophants
either!

Tell them
The three-eyed raven is back in town
And the lies and deceits of the mothers are all in the open and their
daughters shall drink from their poisoned wine

The man is no one
The suffering masses are the heirs to the throne all these while. We are no
slave at all!

While they scuttle for 2019
Yes, tell the mad king
And the sick king
And the gold king
And the old king
And the former king  
And the two chambers kings
And the various corner kings

The smallfolk are more than the nobility

Let them know
What happens in Meereen as in Sidi Bouzid

When the many stops fearing the few!

The undead armies of the masses are coming for them all and it would
matter little whose brother, tribe or religion sits on the villa throne.

Simply tell them, it's time for 'no one' to be 'some one'.

Amami Henry

To a wandering friend
A step after the other leads to where?

Just like you
Here we are burdened by choice
The ones made and
The ones yet to take
The ones bestowed by nature and
The ones fostered by society

Expectations on high
Degree, you must get at a certain age
Employment, you must secure from a certain sector
Marriage, you must not miss in your twenties
Anything short of this is a burden to the mind

You are not alone, gutted by doubt
Not of success
But the path to success
The forerunners gave a tale of crooked paths
Yet not for once did we find dust on their feet

Hard to pick a role model    
In a society of ours
Where vice is the new norm
And virtue
An alien to our smart-age

You are not alone, wondering why we are here
When every creed
Claims the right to the 'absolute TRUTH'
And the only path to LIGHT!

Hard to find, where to pitch one's tent
In a society of ours
Where faith temples
Prioritize the need for one more jet
And Spartan life
A curse to the doctrine

You are not alone, questioning our oneness
When every clan feels marginalized and
Secession the only path

Hard to know, who to relate with
In a society of ours
Where every tribe beats the drum of war
Yet, it is the blood of the commoners
That will go for it

Yes, my friend
A journey of a thousand miles
Begins with a step
And a step after the other leads to where one is focused
Yet, along each step may appear a rocky ground or a bend

Let not the bend distort your focus because,

The Moon
The Stars
That shines in the darkness of the night
is an ember of hope that
comes with dawn and the brightness of day.

-Amami Henry.



How come we did not meet years ago?
When man's heart is pure and unencumbered
With bittersweet and sour experiences
Of life and love

If only we had met
When we both had a clean slate
How come we succumbed
To the negatives of our past
When the future is so positive
Though with blurred present

How come the very challenges
that should nurture and build us
Seem to tear us apart?

The signs were there and positive
We felt it. Everyone confirmed it.
How come we let lies and deceit creep in?

How come the things we did not say
weigh more than the things we said
And our deeds betray our utterances

Now the memory of our smiles
And good moments hurt
in the light of discoveries
and recent happenings

Even with shared dreams
And aspirations
How come the things we want
is filled with all the things we don’t want?

Ours was a natural connection
That everyone loved
Did nature deceive
drawing together to throw further apart?
Or we betrayed nature by altering the path set out for us?

What would you have me do?
I had plans, I took you to Mother and
Showed you my ancestral home and everyone dear to me
And everyone welcomed and loved you

What would you have me do?
When you broke my trust and repeatedly lied to my face
Even when caught red-handed, your response was
‘ko ri be se ro’
When you eventually confessed
It was my fault “I trusted too much”
“Barely showed it” and got “angry too easily”

How should I have ro?
When the married Engineer.
You told me was ‘Aburo mummy mi’
Was actually your lover?

How should I have ro?
When the Oregun Church vigils
Was actually a night stand
With your former co-worker, you told me was
‘Omo aburo mummy mi’

How should I have ro?
When you told the same person
Now your lover, I am your brother
And continued to lie about ‘lappy’

We both know
My sin is not that I lied
It is that I told the truth when I should have lied

It is that I swung my hand to your face
When I should have taken a walk.
This I regret.

I know I would not have the chance
To tell the Debos of this world the truth
Not when you had her lie to my face

I know the Aunty Olaitans of this world
Like Ebetile, Rooney and Sister Taiwo
Would only get different versions of ‘your truth’

If your versions are true
and this is the end
How come everyone is mystified
and seem betrayed by us?
It is because I accede to them all.

Such is the magnitude of the love and respect
I have for you.
No one, not even mother
Should think low of you on my account

My heart forgives
I trust yours heals and forgives one day
I do hope it won’t be too late for me
to be raised and love again.

Amami Henry



It’s 31st night
And the euphoria is here again
Fill the temples, fill the mosque
Chant, chant, and chant
Tell yourself to turn a new leaf, like we don't know the circle.

January 14 beckons
And a friend is yet to see the hoax
Living in denial, mouthing a confidence
With a voice that carries no conviction
Haggard look that confirms troubled mind.

The games are on again
The odds are stacking up the bounty
Big spoils for half a penny of 90minutes.

The sane banking on the deranged
For the lucky numbers
Pick your figures
Pick your colour and
Await the draw.

Pledge a spare
And get thirtyfold harvest
Tell a friend and get even more.

Every minute check on the board
Seems the big break is finally here
Every minute, the heart beats faster
Every second too far to wait.

Boom goes the final seconds
And someone, somewhere
Is better for it
Boom goes the final seconds
And someone, everywhere
Has just been ruined
Like every story
Different sides, a particular theme –Greed!

Pitchers of mind mutter endlessly
The prophesies will soon be out
Turn right, it’s gloom and doom
Turn left, it’s bloom and boom
Not picking blue
Not picking black
Is it bleak then? No!
It must be somewhat in between
For accurate manifestation or manipulation.

Virtue over vices we preach
Young minds inundated with platitudes of diligence
Yet, tattered are the clothing of the man who earned an honest living.

Tale of the returnee soldier man
Daring the scorching Sun
He erects a pulpit at one corner of the four-junction highway
Calling all to repentance
With a rosy promise of afterlife.

At the other corner
Hums the sound of the other religion
Another corner, beams the noise of the secular world
All longing for the souls of the passers-by.

On the 7th floor
Of the modern building
The observing sceptic looks on scornfully
And ask rhetorically
Who!
What!
Would unshackle the Negro’s mind?

God of our forebears or the slave masters?
Double jeopardy for us all.

-Amami Henry




No comments:

Post a Comment