OR LET'S COVER OUR EYES ?
What will the world replace if it strips man of life?
Whatever it gives him for him it's not enough.
If there is after life, he will not care what death
will do with his poor flesh as his soul will survive.

Is that an easy case for man to solve through mind
or faith can shore him up to make him trust , but blind?
I wonder how man can neglect this crucial view
and think of birds and trees when writing verse and prose.

Are they a good escape that covers his own eyes
and makes him live a dream to overlook that plight?
He covers his scared eyes but knows that death lurks there.
Nothing can drive death out; let us it quite forget.

Where are you from all that? Could you give me your point?
The bugbear is quite near; how can we dance and cheer?
Let us be sure what death can bring to the man kind.
Is it the start of glee, or the end of a man's world?
BY JOSEPH ZENIEH
____________

A TOAST FOR THE PRESENT

I can't think of what may come.
It will cause me lots of harm.
I will think of what l can
capture from the present time.

Every moment that l live
has something for me to give.
Why don't l take it and smile
and inured time l forgive ?

Past time is just what l now
live, but stripped of its bad show
since what l lived as great fear
turns out to be a heart glow.

Nothing can seem dear and nice
like a hardship we surpass.
Why don't l enjoy my time
as success may be my case?

BY JOSEPH ZENIEH
____________

DOCTOR  FAUSTUS
Doctor Faustus, l can feel what you passed through
to gain science and to know the latest view.
You sold your soul to the foe to give you what
can satiate your obsessed mind and eager heart.

When a man loves someone else the other should
give him something in return and not be rude.
Faustus, you gave all your life for science' sake.
Did that science relieve you from your bad ache?

Faustus, we are quite inside your horrid boat.
We give life for various aims on which we dote.
Then we wake up when the devil of your deal
comes to take the price of what has no appeal.

Faustus, we are, just like you, lost in a world
callous and has mindless thoughts for man's demand.
We get mad as Faustus did at his sad end,
pay the due but do not take what can amend.
BY JOSEPH ZENIEH
____________

GREEN  WITH  ENVY

I entwined my hand with hers,
strolled among the blooming flowers.
We sat on the grass to see
if the flowers could give glee.

I looked at her eyes and left
the hues that the petals got,
lived in peace inside her eyes,
leaving those fields and their skies.

I pressed her hand for a kiss;
I smelt odour of great bliss.
I ignored the jasmine's smell,
and on her hand l would dwell.

Then the flowers got so piqued.
They began to wane and wilt.
I eavesdropped a bee that nagged,
"Beauty can't defeat withstand."

BY JOSEPH ZENIEH
____________

WHICH DO YOU CHOOSE ?
Cheer up and fill the world with a cheerful sound,
and let your merry voice fill all the world.
Don't be afraid of life as time will pass
whether your heart is frail or made of brass.

This life is like a dog if you fear it,
it barks, attacks and even tries to bite.
If you are firm, it howls and runs away
and hides itself where it can safely stay.

Rejoice and dance whatever comes to you
as time is fixed; you can't live overdue.
If you can't add to your fixed life a day,
Why should you spend it with a tearful eye.

Delight in life; the graves are full of men.
Some spent their lives with joy and some with strain.
The first have got great names on every mouth;
the second are recalled for mocking mirth.
BY JOSEPH ZENIEH
____________

THE  VICEROY
What are you, man, but greatest work of art
in which the Lord has placed a mind to act?
He makes you master of His new-made world
and gives you choice to know the good and bad.

You chose to know, and ate from that fruit tree
to share the artist in what He can see.
As you got all that wit and wisdom gained,
God wants you to observe what's good and bad.

What's good is just to love what God has made,
to give them joy and all the needed aid.
God wants His art to enjoy peace on earth
and asks you, supreme art, to help its growth.

He asks you, viceroy, to love and be kind
and make them all in their best ways arrayed.
The other creatures don't know good and bad,
but you are wise and master of this world.
BY JOSEPH ZENIEH
____________

ROCHESTER'S CALL FOR JANE
Jane, my Jane, l need your love; please, come to me.
I have lost my hand and sight; come make me see.
I feel that l need you much; my heart calls you.
Don't neglect my urgent call; come, be my view.

I have lost all that l have, but l don't care.
I feel a great surge in heart to touch your hair.
Come, l want to press you hard to my faint chest
and give you my loving heart, what's for me left.

I can't keep my heart, that cradles your love, safe.
I wish to entrust this love ere l get off.
It's my treasure in my life, and all l've got.
Please, come soon. You are my hope ere l depart.

I have seen a lot, but you have got the touch
that could enslave all my thoughts and my heart catch.
Come let me enfold your heart to sing the tune
that my heart has sung for long; please, Jane, come soon.
BY JOSEPH ZENIEH
____________