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Ted Mar 2018
"A bubbling brew we concocted,
A doomed recipe from the start,
A hot mess in my room we made,
A sticky residue you left on me,
that won't wash free,
A misstep by my heart,
of something that was
to be carefree."
Osondu Aug 2016
"Lord, if you be at all, be a blade"

"Dance. Nigerians are not sad."
So I must drown myself in loud music
Move my head to meaningless lyrics
Yet, I am plagued by demons of despair
My mind is caving in around me
And I am a mere spectator, yet
"Dance. Nigerians are never sad"

"Choose to be happy. Is this for attention?"
Yes.
Because I will allow myself this torture
To be haunted by this devil sadness
For a mere few seconds of your life
How grand.

"You have made contracts with water spirits"
I do not like fish or even water on my skin
Yet, this seems like the answer
To the evil darkness that clouds my mind
Turning me inside out

I am ill
Still, they offer ignorance
Cage me for "choosing" to be ill

Lord, if you be at all, be a blade
Slay my demons
Ignorance too
My anger is the silent one. Lurking beneath till it becomes thinly veiled sarcasm. My anger is mine.

Mental Health is Important. Aye, even for Nigerians.
Moji K Jun 2016
god is
one

but we worship
a black box
in mecca

god is
one

but we think
you deserve
to die

god is
one

but we worship
a black box
in mecca

i choose a
veil for i'm
a willing slave

we cry just like
you & i

god is
one

but we worship
a black box
in mecca

you
pierce the
wrong veil

but we are not
people behind

the cries of
my brothers
silenced

god is
one

but we worship
a black box
in mecca

you laugh at
a tongue twisted
around your words

but ours still
sound crass
on yours

god is
one

but we worship
a black box
in mecca
Lukoje Jan 2016
Insanity* is not
doing the same thing over
and over
expecting a different result.

Because I do
a mathematics exam paper
every week
always getting a different result.

Insanity is not
loving someone that doesn't
love you
back the way you deserve.

Because I have
loved my grandfather
each day*
since death stopped his heart.
Cheyenne Sep 2015
Listen to your demons;
They have a lot to say.
Consider, now, the chaos:
It can take your breath away.

Play the devils advocate:
Be shocked by your own speech.
Play with fire, dance with monsters,
Contemplate what they preach.

Hear the echoes in the silence,
Though the resonance is faint.
See the figures in the darkness
Meaning light still remains.

Stare into oblivion.
Embrace the great abyss.
Find beauty in the question:
Can nothingness exist?

And you think it is as simple
As telling black from white;
Little do you know, my love,
That it's just a trick of the light.
Thomas EG Mar 2015
Reality hits me
And it ******* kills me
No, please don't say
That you understand

The physical pain
Is sickening, oh
Why can't I be seen
For what I really am?

Well, the thing is
That I actually commit
To the harmless ****
That I care about

Unlike the others
That don't seem to care
They quit, cancel, flit
I can't help but think that it's unfair

Don't you miss me
Don't you notice my absence
Don't you care
That I'm not there?

I hate the crowds
They misconceive how
I express myself
When I'm just the same as everyone else

Or am I?
Who the **** cares?
Let me be who I want to be
Let me do something satisfactory

No, you don't understand
I'm sorry but it's true
You can't sympathise with me
When you don't have a clue...
Ey... Just thought I'd be honest. The other night I was so upset that I felt physically ill and it inspired me haha. Anyway, here's a poem about misconceptions!
Towela Kams Oct 2014
Yesterday, I was on my way to the mall and I decided to use public transport.
There was this odd man in the bus, who spoke in a very peculiar tone.
I heard him speak our local language, shouting, "I beat her yesterday! My wife came home late from work yesterday and I beat her! I slapped her! I ****** her! I kicked her!"
I was sitting in the back, and I thought that maybe this was just a joke. Even still, it was a rather morose "joke".
The man beside him, his friend, exclaimed in heavy laughter saying, "Yes, my friend, that's what we do. They'll learn to respect us. And they'll learn that they should not do just as they please!"
The man replied, "That's true! She must be thankful I brought her from the village and into the city. She shouldn't even be working. She should be home, being a housewife."
At this point in time, the elderly woman beside me shot a glance to the men behind her.
It could've been that she had experienced abuse, too, in her earlier years of marriage.
I knew she was stunned and I knew she wanted to say something, just as I did but didn't know how to structure her words.

I'm fourteen. And I'm very lucky to be born in modern day where abuse isn't tolerated and education for women is recommended.
It's more than "just" education. It's empowerment.
And that's what a lot of women don't understand.
I won't be quick to blame them for staying in such an abusive relationship.
Not that I'm encouraging that they stay, or anything.
I know that sometimes they stay because they can't leave.
There's their children they can't leave behind
I think it's high time society appreciated women, they go through more than we can imagine
Physical abuse is one thing, emotional abuse is the deadliest
And the scars left on these women's lives is irreversible
They learn to reduce themselves to this HORRENDOUS "lifestyle" that people from long ago accustomed to
Education is the key to success; you best believe that
Over the next few years, I want to hear the story of the girl who witnessed and sometimes endured abuse
And how she used her experience to help fellow girls
And how she further grew up to help empower women
I want that girl to be me
To be the mouthpiece for women
And it all begins today.

As my mother has said before, "If he even ATTEMPTS/THREATENS/ to hit you, LEAVE."
Due to circumstances that abusers usually encounter in their early stages of life, abuse isn't something you can easily rectify. It's not a cycle that can be broken.
So, L E A V E.
Close the door to abuse, open the door to happiness and success. Especially when you have the key to open it; Education - the key to success.

Thank you,
Towela Kams [Future women-advocate]
Unfortunately, I have tons of friends who witness abuse. And it scars them when that abuse is done by someone their mothers really love.
This piece is pretty self-explanatory.
JJ Elias May 2014
Sometimes I spread my hands to the sky certain that they can grasp the stars but they can't, yet I keep reaching anyways.

And there's something beautiful about spinning on a field when the only thing visible is the night sky, and the only thing insignificant is you.

When I was young the thought of the world revolving around the sun intrigued me, and those moments somehow made me feel at one with the world.

Spin, spin, spinning, but then I would stop and my feet could no longer keep up with pace of my head, so I’d go flying in all directions just like disillusioned men when they go stumbling down streets unfamiliar to them.

Sometimes I wonder if the world is the way it is because it is in chaos and no one even knows.

Like somehow everyone is at a disadvantage,

Like no mind is sober because of a natural disposition pinned against us by gravity.

What if that is why men do the things they do, because I always wonder under what spirit do they operate, what demons have they encountered, that cause them to be possessed with this hate that makes *** slaves of the unfortunate, orphans of the unprepared, single mothers of the lovers, victims of our children, and on and on and on and on again.

Life just keeps moving and we just keep making the same mistakes. generations pass, people die but no one understands that we are just animals, caught in a war against ourselves.

Against our greed, our pride, our lust, our security, our beliefs.

We are so full of ourselves that we don't notice what is happening around us, we don't know that the world is spinning at 1000 mph; we have lost touch with the things that matter, lost all connections with the truth in the sky that enlightens anyone who dares to approach it.

always forgetting that it is the beauty of the moon, and the millions of stars that remind us that We Are Insignificant

But instead we are grounded and we have stopped so our feet cannot keep up with the pace of our heads so we have lost our balance.

You know I'm afraid, I'm afraid for my life.

On morbid days I envision myself in my coffin, I see my lifeless body and the pastor walking up to the podium, he says,
"Jal, he was an average man, maybe a bit eccentric, tragedy struck and this young man was taken away from us way too early by the devastating actions of an unidentified person.”

I watch the whole funeral and in curiosity I wonder which belief was it that killed me, or was it something outside my control like the color of my skin.

You see most people pray to be put down while they are sleeping by the famous killer, old age, but I don't know if I'll make it that long.
I've always said I want to be fully aware of the moment I die.

That's why when I was young on family road trips, when the only thing I could see was the 350 ft. ahead of the car illuminated by the headlights, and the determined face of my father, I would fight to stay awake because I couldn't let death take me by surprise.

But now I'm eighteen I occasionally have nightmares of my loved ones dying, but then again I don't really sleep anymore because death threatens to come at any moment.

A terrorist attack could shatter the windows of this house I consider impenetrable, or even a hungry thief thinking irrationally about his rationality.

This is the world we live in.

The world is spinning off its axis and things that used to seem so far have slid closer and closer, until I’m looking right into the eyes of death.

From 9-11, to Westgate, to genocide, things are closing in on me, and the “what ifs” are no longer so improbable and I am afraid.

I'm afraid that the world will never change, that people will stay the same, that I will go insane.

I’m going insane.

Could people just understand, could we just stop for a moment, grab each other’s hands and walk to open fields together at twilight after all traces of the sun have gone, could we whirl around with our heads to the skies, our nature abandoned, and our bodies in sync with the world,

Could we just spin and spin and spin until we once again become what we were made to be.

Could we just be more than animals?

— The End —