BECAUSE I AM POOR

BECAUSE I AM POOR

I am forced to live in slums and bushes,

Painted black and classified worst.

I am made to lick the feet of the rich and romance their faeces

And walk in rags along the streets

Because I am poor,

My entire family preferred a foreigner to me

And treat me like an outcast.

I am made a slave in my own home

And given a bad name like a dog

Because of poverty,

I lamented innocently in jail while the real offenders danced and wined in showrooms like kings

The little I have is taken from me and added to the abundance of the bourgeois

My cup stands empty while theirs overflow like the Wouri River.

Because of my predicaments,

I dig and till the soil in the heaviest rains and hottest sun

But receive nothing my land bears

Because the rich want all, all and all.

But though I am poor,

I know all hope is not lost for I see a green light in the horizon

I will not yield to the oppression and evil dancing confidently around me

But rise up soon and broke this chains of poverty, evil and torments

Then I will have a voice to defend the poor and make the world see their potentials

That Day hovers around.

NTUI OBEN OBI AGBOR

                                                                                                          20th May 2016