by Salisu Suleiman | |
Published on: Dec 1, 2004 | |
Topic: | |
Type: Poetry | |
https://www.tigweb.org/express/panorama/article.html?ContentID=4863 | |
We were told it would give us freedom, but got chains We were promised progress, but returned to the dark ages Where we expected bread, it fed fat on our hungers While we prayed for hope, it grew on our fears When we dared to cry, silence was enthroned by bullets. We came back home with ambitions in our hearts We came back home with greenbacks in our bags We came back home with ideas in our heads We parted ways with hosts to retrace long lost homes But what we see is freedom supported by chains Some stayed back because they believed the promises As we were plied with new lies to quell old tears We watered the bud of hope for the flower of our futures And were slow in recognizing the demise of fast fading hopes Because the democracy promised came in steel chains So we watch their possessed dance, drenched in silent tears We look on as freedom is locked up in democracys empty promises And cannot protest when starvation becomes food for the masses Even though we were promised that democracy would put food on tables Instead we got democracy that is draped in chains We were promised balms to sooth our open wounds Yet we are but pawns to impress foreign powers We were promised homes with proper roofs Yet our children are born under the glare of naked flares For the democracy they gave us is held up by thugs We were promised light inside our homes and clothes on our backs But we have learnt to see in the dark and wrap with our rags We salivate at the hope that once promised so many dishes Praying even as we know that redemption is only in our graves Because the democracy we see is decked in golden chains. « return. |