Alone.. Poem by Oluseyi Akinbami

Alone in the world of writs

I stand alone

To mockery because my shoes are worn,

My suit torn.



Alone,

Because I refused to invest my time

In vanity of men’s wealth

The relentless treadmill of materialism.

The infinity of human thoughts are vital to me

While friends and colleagues

Constant in the mad rush for avarice



Alone,

When I speak against societal ills

Paid writers mock at me

And call me ‘fool’!

My mind, preaching constant messages of irrelevances

Because I will die a writer.

No money,

No friends,

No foe.



Alone,

When intelligent comrades backslide

into a reverse and praising of societal tyranny.

Alone,

When vanity of fame and temporal gain

Reduce men of honour

To a loose dissolved state of lies.



Alone,

When the courage for truth

Falls to a beggarly withdrawal for fear

Alone,

When mass comrades reduce intelligence

To cheap Trade by Bata.



Alone,

When moneybags employ friends

In the service of sly.

Alone,

When kings and kingdom

Turn greater minds to lesser scribe.



Alone,

When hunger, pain, loneliness

Stare in the face

For uncommon stance.



Alone,

Let lies increase

Vanity multiply

Comrades compromise

Hunger kill

Clothes burnt

Impoverished me be

With no friends

No follower



And in the grave

Just like I came,

Alone, Alone.