NDUKO O'MATIGERE

Category: Verse

  • In Your Eyes

    In your eyes I have seen the universe

    Its dazzling brightness and sombre gaze

    Its good and its bad

    All woven in one

    A tidy messy roll

    Deep in your eyes I’ve seen the universe

    Its threesome of black, white and grey

    And soothing music and drunken growls

    And caressing whispers and stinging rage

    All dripping in one gush

    A cocktail of love and hate

    Sweet, sour and bitter

    Desire and disgust

    Hope and despair

    Truths and lies

    Laughter and sobs

    I’ve seen the universe in your eyes

    The which I want

    And the which I don’t

    In these your eyes

    I see the universe

    And I miss me

    – nduko o’matigere –

  • Whispers in Verse 1

    ABSCESS IN STATE – by Nduko o’Matigere

    My state’s lower abdomen aches

    Paining in gnawing unending pangs

    Each movement a spell in acute pain

    Like a branding rod: red hot; frightening

    Pressed coldly atop sections of the country’s buttocks

    The sores and pain and itching mingle

    My motherland’s lower abdomen is swollen

    A congealed collection of ugly yellow-brown abscess

    Gathered and drummed in protective muscle

    Capsules of pretense

    Neighboring organs are evicted

    It stings and spreads pain to the entire nation

    Some in vascoverticular positions

    Others in anteroperpendicular rabid straits

    Those with mouths scream

    Those with tears weep and wet their cheeks

    My motherland’s lower abdomen

    A haunting region of hazards

    Grips my whole state

    Stoops my proud walk

    Frowns my cheerful face

    Frails my healthy body

    The yellow-brown abscess

    Right here where I touch.

    (October 30, 1998)