CACTUS’ SPINES BY Ògúnyọmí Israel Abídèmí


Serendipitous speeches drop Rambunctiously as thunder
And embers of sparkling lightening
Testify to their effects. Ah, you know not tigers!


When the ancient sower Deposited despotic seeds Into the womb of the earth,
The innocent earth generously
Watered and soften them –
From her kind surface, they sprout heads!
Here comes the reign of tyrants! Like ferocious carnivores whose Claws inextricably penetrate
The necks of prey,
Their reddish eyes flame
Ah, you know not tigers!


A pride of daemon is loosened upon the earth
To unleash and slavish terror
Upon her inhabitants!
Ah, you know not tigers!


Are these leaders or rulers?
None would wait to answer the question
Is this fortune or misfortune?
The question has murdered it answer! Ah, you know not tigers!


When lighter mouths than Feathers we luckily possess, Unspoken words than iron Make them heavier
Questions we perfectly understand
Who is audaciously knowledgeable
To give their answers? Ah, you know not tigers!


When there is freedom to keep
One’s mouth sealed,
I doubt if anyone would Foolishly unseals his mouth. Ah, you know not tigers!


Are these Hobbes’ Leviathans: Unquestionable monsters he speaks about? Ah, you know not tigers!
Who would dare disobey their laws?
Who would take the state back to its nature, Where lives were brutishly unlivable,
Where uncertainty and panic clouded the face of heaven?
Ah, you know not tigers!



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