Hibiscus Flowers Blooms In Nigeria Poem by Ejiofor Alisigwe

The flowers appear overnight stodgy and proud
Not willowy and merry to the sight and field
The hibiscus has become regular morning features
Their individual pride are wasted on disjointed limbs
Sprouting posthumous bulbous green shoots from humus mound
Off decomposing torsos dead on the muddy kerb
Lost on tough thoroughfares, slouching shoulders and shuffling feet to curb
The bodies crying and squirming under heavy foxtrot
Raising coiling sinister dusts like mambas on dry afternoons and humid nights


Their hurrying feet seek their destinies lost in time
And alert on their legs as they recoil their steps
Away from the whiffs of moist hibiscus flowers
Buzzing noisily from bloated torsos the night took
Lay dead hiding stiff smiles and rigor mortis lark
To retrace their intrepid steps and most times huddles
Over the red hibiscus and wiry yellow sunflowers
Feeding fat erratic maggots burrowing voracious tunnels
To their destined hubbub of blue flies and killer bees
To earn their living laying eggs and counting tedious daily pollens
To fertilize a bountiful harvest from the austerity of the day


This is living the rat race, the hustle and bustle pains
Facing the harsh truth of life to bear brutal witnesses
To their selfless ego to survive on nondescript limbs
And plenty prayers hiding a guilty yearn for a treasure throve
Flexing overnight riches muscled in to rival the Jones
Whose biceps pack lethal blows against vulnerable plexus
Like the dank torsos dead the night before
Sprouting hibiscus flowers on muddy thoroughfare
Shared by jalopy cars shy of booby-traps on bumpy roads
Blocked by carcasses of decrepit vehicles caught in the traps


Here on a hive of buzzing roads and scurry backyards
In cramped ghettos tooting reminders of meagre existence
The severity of life as they see fit to each day live
And to cover their noses from the rank odour of muggy flowers
Misguided hibiscuses and sunflowers sprouting from dead limbs
Surviving to live ugly even with a bouquet of hibiscus flowers

Ejiofor Alisigwe

12/10/09