THE BIRD'S CAGE AND MINE

Your home is nature not this cage,
Poor little bird, l feel your rage.
Your song is not to call your mate
But just to cry your gloomy fate.

Poor little bird, you're not alone,
But lots of weak men share your tone.
To speak they must be with the throng
Or people will not mind their tongue.

They can speak when they say what men
Want them to say, not what they ken.
They must say what men want to hear
Or their words will not reach their ear.

My bird, l want to speak with you;
I suffer as much as you do.
Your cage is your jail where you stay,
But mine is what l have to say.

BY JOSEPH ZENIEH
____________

THE LAMB'S FLEECE

Sometimes, we feel the world smiles,
And sweetest joy in us compiles.
Without a reason for that joy,
It falls on us and we enjoy.

What is the source of that fresh breeze
That cools our hearts and minds can please?
It makes us see the world so sweet
And all our problems we defeat.

Is it a message from above
That falls on those who live great love ?
It keeps away from hearts that hate
As joy and hate can never mate.

The source is vague but must be blessed
As misdeeds can't with joy be dressed.
If holy life can give us peace,
Why don't we wear the Lamb's pure fleece ?

BY JOSEPH ZENIEH
____________

THE LURE OF A NYMPH

Beside a forest was my house.
The forest was so large and dense.
It was at dusk; l heard a girl  
Singing a song my mind could hurl.
So sweet was her voice that she could
Take my mind out of this dull world.

It was a voice full of deep love
That my ears could my slow feet shove
Towards the forest and the source
Not caring for its spiky course.

When she saw me, she fast escaped,
And heavy fog her  figure draped.
I did not care and followed her;
The rugged way could not me deter.

The pursuit led to such a maze.
I found myself in helpless daze.
My way back home was fully lost,
And night had its full darkness tossed.

No voice of girls but of wild dogs
Was all around with snakes an frogs.
I was so scared and hoped to find
A way out of this horrid land.

My fear led me to shout and scream,
Which woke me up from that bad dream.
I looked around and was so pleased
When l found myself in my bed.
BY JOSEPH ZENIEH

MY COUNTRY

You are the house in which l lived.
You are the old neighbour l loved
Who told me stories of the past
Whose image in my mind will last.

You are the streets in which l walked.
You are the friends with whom l talked.
You are the people who were old
And died but left their shapes in mind.

You are the school to which l went
Whose sweet and bitter tastes are blent.
You are the teachers who taught me
Whose figures in my heart l see.

You are my father and my mum.
You are the shopping with my chum.
You are my failure and success.
You are the wife who shares my house.

Another country may give gold,
But not the past that l have lived,
And not the tissues of my heart
That these old items slowly built.

BY JOSEPH ZENIEH
____________

HOW STRANGE MAN IS !

A man is beaten by his foe.
He causes his wife so much woe.
His wife reacts on her young child.
In turn, the child beats his cat hard.

In life, we always act like that.
We often from hard problems ****.
We just waste time on what we can,
And keep hard work out of the plan.

How can a writer close his eyes
And forget his soul and its skies ?
Is he like that who beats his wife
To shun his foe's most crucial strife ?

I wonder how man can escape
The strong foe and exchange his shape.
Can he convince his beaten mind
And swap with what on him assigned ?

BY JOSEPH ZENIEH
____________

WHY DO WE HAVE A MIND ?

Sad poems, you are not my realm
As tears the globe quite overwhelm.
No hope can come through tears and sighs;
They flood the earth and gloom the skies.

I am in search of hopeful lines.
Perhaps with them my shy hope shines
And leads to what my heart looks for
So my soul sails to reach that shore.

We look for trifles when we write
And serious aims we don't indite.
What is the gain if we win all
But have no thoughts for final goal ?

This life must have a final aim;
No death can end its endless game
As mind is placed not for concern
But helping man this fact to learn.

BY JOSEPH ZENIEH
____________