The weekly newspaper
Announced the government spending.
The road and dam projects
Were abandoned to rowdy campaigns.
The extravagant contractors denied,
Silence of the trucks like the troubled night.
Violent ragtags trooped the streets
With over-heated hands jittering for a fight,
Only for something the vultures roam in the sky,
The eagle’s glory is his prolonged flight.
The call to national service overtakes
The old pot of greed, but the merchants
For the loot, as the famished boy
Throws his stones from the colony of poverty.
This is a national call to serve the people,
Not a call to steal from the national pot.
The vision lied several seasons
On the mountain top, a vision
Of the great to heed the greatest vision.
—–
Francis Annagu is the author of “Our Land In The Beak Of Vultures” (Hesterglock Press, 2017). His works have appeared in Expound Magazine, Potomac Journal, Lunaris Review and others.
