Sahara Plague Poem by Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu

Desert swallows not her pride,
but swallows the hoofs of vagrants.

It is recorded among earthly plagues –
untold hardship unleashed on restless limbs –
maggots' relative revelry.

Sojourners' sun dims.
Altar swelters on the grits of dunes
polished by racing winds.
Pulse and beats elated towards elusive horizon,
retreating-bright.

This column of beings towards stretched dusk,
a dispersed flock of oasis pilgrims.
Rage and futile greenery scorch the presence of
heathen thirst –
how with the killing lustre of a boiling palace?

Urine, chaliced and priced, runs the
errands of endless tube-channelling.
Yonder, laughter in the face of the sun
retreats Europe.

O' Plague, Desert Plague,
Ishmael is haunted.
Assegais aloft; thirst-pointed, for this
cadaver... hold!

Hagar is at the fringes.

Night, and the moon bears witness to
this frazzled journey, this leap
to madness, of seasonless pilgrimages to
European quarters from burning homes.