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Jul 2019 · 133
Striving to succeed
Okafor Michael Jul 2019
Heart thudding, eyes flickering in the moonlight
Beads of perspiration spotting my forehead
As I stay awake keeping vigil over books
As though it were my mother's Onugbu soup
I keep battling with sleep as she slowly
Seduces me, kissing me softly on my eyes;
I am losing this fight
I walk by the broken glass
And I saw visions and saw the person I need to be
These legless critics are trying to teach me how to run
they're like fire, blackening everything above it which it cannot reach
My future I'm trying to preserve
But here I am, in the present
The clouds so gray and gloomy overhead
The wind from my past howling and screaming "****** ******",
but my spirit is close to dead
The fog creeping over breaking visibility of
Where I'm meant to be
Don't judge me for I'm really trying to succeed
Maybe we would be wiser if empty heads growled like empty stomachs
For even the mosquito does not get a slap
On the back, until it goes to work.
Jul 2019 · 61
My world
Okafor Michael Jul 2019
This is my world:
Where no one cares but me
A place I wouldn't give up for Tag Mahal
Here, I'm no stranger to darkness
'Cause really that's my only comfort.
Sadness came to me at night in a veil
Whispering words washed in tears
I could not remember what it is she said
But my pillow I believe knows them all.
Maybe this pain is what keeps me going
Knowing that the only one I have is just me
I wish there's a hand holding mine
Or a face to reflect my smile.
But here I'm alone with my thoughts
Sad memories playing in black and white
Maybe I'm enjoying the show
I don't know, I guess my heart won't let me be.
Jul 2019 · 62
Death
Okafor Michael Jul 2019
Here I am dragging air through my nostrils
not sure which one would be my last,
they carefully caress my lungs
sending reeling feelings
one only finds on mother's breast.
The wind came whistling nature's thoughts,
it's warm lips gently pressed
against my ears.
I couldn't look her in the eye  
for fear of being blinded
by the golden grains of the hot Sahara.
Would I miss this scorching African Sun?
Could my mother live through this heartbreak?
How long could my father carefully hold those tears?
Maybe I should  just keep pushing,
keep pushing until my back's against the wall.
There's something out there lurking in the shadows
tearing at my fragile heart
as though it were a dying child's plaything.
It's trying to lay its cold hand on my heart.
I know not its name, nor could I remember the face
but the smile is unmistakably sardonic
and it smelled of death.
Jul 2019 · 77
Hand of God
Okafor Michael Jul 2019
HAND OF GOD
It came at night when men lay awake in death
A voice; a language written in the night sky,
Brilliant as day light.
"Do you not feel His presence", a voice whispered, "smiling down on earth
like the rays of sunshine, warm and comforting."
The aura of His unwavering love for man
Eclipses the gray clouds of depression hovering over me.
He is everywhere: in the flapping of a butterfly's wing,
The sweet lullaby of the Mockingbird.

The crackle of fire as it devours my mother's firewood
The tinkling of droplets on corrugated iron sheets
The swooshing of wind as it strolls at even pace
Like notes from a piano
As His hands strike the chords of life.

Do you not see Him in a child's innocent smile
As he reaches for his mother's arm?
Isn't it folly to seek Him in the cold-lifeless bronze statue in churches
When He is within our reach, deep in our hearts.
Whispering to our souls, silently, with each beat of our frail heart.

His hands are not always pleasant
Like my mother's strong hands drawing maps on my sad face
Yes, it threw judgemental fire on *****'s rooftops
Complete combustion of Gomorrah's rotten flesh
Or shut the gates during pharaoh's visit to red sea's depth
But as an Iroko always traced to its roots
The hand of God is only fuelled by Love.
So,  this is a duo work with my friend Abraham.
Jul 2019 · 65
Bird in a cage
Okafor Michael Jul 2019
BIRD IN A CAGE
So, in a cage you kept me; a tiny, fancy cage.
Just something to show your friends and brag about,
feeding me only when you felt like it.
In the beginning, I thought it was great: I loved this cage.
Flapping my frail wings about in my tiny cage,
smiling on the wrong side of my face,
convinced that one day you'd see the good in me
and set me free.
All I ever wanted was to be seen not as a prize or trophy
but as human that craves love and attention.
Perhaps it was too much to ask of you.
"Ice-queen", you've turned my frail heart into a thousand winters,
completely impervious to anything human.
I can't feel the slow rhythmic beating of my heart anymore
I thought the knife was to cut me a cake?
so why is there blood on its blade? Is the heart you meticulously carved out
a gift to Hades_Greek god of the underworld, ruler of the dead?
Dead men, they say,  tell no tale, but here I am bleeding my thoughts out.
May 2019 · 51
Her Whispers
Okafor Michael May 2019
A heavenly sound approaches
Your graceful voice I hear
Like the plucking strings of a harp
Harmony echoes in my ear
She casts her glow around me
Whispering sweet nothings
Serenity is her favorite chord
Her being is my everything
A constant sparkle to her eye
Everlasting bliss in her smile
She could put you to sleep in seconds
And wake you with the energy to run a mile
I spent hours listening to her whispers
Never fulfilled with the beauty bestowed
My thirst could never quite be quenched
And lucky for me, her voice would flow.

— The End —