A National Applicant. Poem by Tony Adah

Under the scorching sun
Under the chilly rain
Or the sleepless nights I see myself
Wearing a torment my country
Has sewn for me;
I have traversed the length
And breath of my country,
My hope clasped in my heart steams
And rises like vapour in the sun,
The wit and wisdom my college
Professors expounded resound
An empty cymbal,
Now mute and all topsy turvy I am.

I have borrowed the legs of
Knowledge to prowl on this land
The sand I am supposed to write
My history on
Grates the soles of my shoes;
I am sitting under a Parkia tree
It is no longer a sweet song
Perhaps my reward is wrapped and kept
In a distance I am yet to attain
I am tired
I do not know if my country or
I am to blame for my long unfruitful
journey.

I am not alone
I can hear the drowsy song of birds
And far in the afternoon, lizards
Nod on the trunk of trees
To the song the birds sing
Without melody,
I am not afraid of them
I see tinkers barefooted with sheets
Of metals on their heads
I am not bothered,
I am thinking of the college fairy
Tales about fresh graduates and
The present fact of the absent jobs.

I have left the earthen road
That which rose dust as we traversed
And painted our ankles earth red
This end which I do not know where
It leads to and may not be tarred
I will leave it
To the asphaltic thoroughfare
Here where Ferraris and bugatis
Wheeze pass
Where traffic blink their red, yellow
And green lights courting the porch
Cars to zoom or take a breath
I am here under the scorching sun
Hungry, looking at my country Hungrier than I am
Those sun beaten lizards,
Those birds which sing with a void
In their stomachs
Those roving tinkers
That humble applicant that I am
If my country could see us
We will all miss
Into its hollow stomach.