A Poor Man's House Poem by Tony Adah

I will build me a house
A red earth house
Of walls mud made
I will not allow Onyurang river
To splutter downstream unused
Because I have no cowries or gold

Earth mortar shall hold my earth bricks
And in any direction the walls go
Straight or crooked
A house for my head I want.

Some men may come
Passers-by and laugh
At my crooked walls
But my house is my shelter
My sleep a great need for the house
Still I know no crooked sleep
In a crooked house.