The beauty of poverty

The tale of the colossal gorilla has thus come to falter,
Its Grips so strong like iron fists on the masses,
So intense the clutch of the fearsome beast,
A feeling more despotic than capitalism,
A feeling more bitter than the spikes of cactus,
A feeling more sinister than mob action,
So ambiguous and elating to the masses awhile,
The thought of the next meal after the first abreast,
The thought of the Gorilla sober making bare necessities elude the populace,
The idea of joy and happiness inverted, rickety bicycles and worn out toys enjoyed whole heartedly,
The suffering masses smiling and fidgeting at the word revolt,
The next door neighbor living in affluence and extravagance,
The country so badly governed and wealth distribution so tilted,
The flow of promises for change persistent and unyielding by the cockatoo,
The poor in my country are the most perseverant ever,
Every day the numbers keep coming on the radio stashing,
Every day the number of crude barrels keeps on rising,
Every day the number of nutrition related deaths keeps rising to greater heights,
This Dracula has blighted more lives than the AIDS virus awhile,
This gorilla has crippled more souls than the dreaded POLIO,
The budgetary digits so sumptuous and appealing to the average ear,
Old crooked radios the masses cling unto to listening to pipe dreams on governance and politics,
Old poles leaning forth shaky and lame with ghost electricity,
The element of surprise is no longer there on Black Out,
Old depilated houses and stuffy buildings the masses cramp into,
“I pass my neighbor” we call it, a power pack used as a substitute to power,
Fumes of gas surging indoors and the health status bound to fester,
Suffering and smiling we come to live through, in a country so blessed to wither,
From the slums and the ghettos, the brightest minds came to shoot out,
Thy wise men said to us before hand, “that for every great mind poverty has created, it has blighted a thousand in its place”,
This sequence has made my mind to wonder, when this great menace will come to falter,
Differences we come to combat, too wide a gap between the rich and the pauper,
When great injustices come to wander, a messiah we need for us to further,
The best way we need to move on, is to be the great nation we dream to alter,
The gorilla so fierce and aggressive, will strike not if our leaders come to reason,
Justices and good governance will thus deliver, a nation so blessed once asunder,
The beauty of poverty is a wonder, because only a Nigerian smiles and suffer at the same bow,
In a country so blessed and gifted with enormous treasures, my heart bleeds for my country .
Muhammad Tijjani Nakande, a freelance writer, is a neo panafrican; you can reach him online at www.muhammadnakandesworld.blogspot.com or email him at memzycool@yahoo.com