Paradise In Flames Poem by Lanre Akinbo

Tell Death
If we must die
It should not be in mass,
nor in the hands of bandits.

Tell the society
If be buried
Not in a shallow grave
Like Ini the job seeker
Murdered in her prime.

Tell my countrymen
If we must be kidnapped
Not by 'unknown gunmen'
But by love.

Tell my government
If we must spend time together
Not in the forest with kidnappers
But with our loved ones at home.

Tell the land
If it must get soaked
It should be from rain
Not from the blood of the innocent.

Tell the police
If they must collect roger
It should not be with a bullet in our head
But on the head of those
Who steals the taxpayer's money.

Tell the elites,
A culture of silence,
Is a hunger for violence
slithering slowly
Into an abyss
As the hunted shall become the hunter.


Ask the politicians
When we bite the dust
Where do we go?