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A PATRIOT’S REQUIEM OR AN IMMIGRANT’S TESTAMENT

1/5/2019

7 Comments

 

​NOME, EMEKA PATRICK, 2ND RUNNER-UP,
​Eriata Oribhabor Poetry Prize (EOPP) 2019 

Click Here to Download the Full Anthology of the Winning Poems
I am sure, God, I grow in the space between my country & my dreams. 
At the embassy, an older woman asks why my name sounds like God’s,
says Emeka unfurls like A maker when tried on a foreigner’s tongue, 
when I tell her I am a Nigerian she stills –the surprised eyes of a cub
pulled out of a zoo. I wear my country like a prayer, I try it on twice
like my father’s militia coat. Good God, I am Nigeria most honest prayer.
I mean in my room I trace the map back to Africa, to Nigeria, to the 
land where my people wake up with the sun in their bones. I cry wolf
for Hauwa Liman, for my grandmothers who died in the war, for the
heroes who held the flag close to their bodies even when they were 
drowning. In my dreams, I wake up to women with amethyst eyes on a
shore where the world glitters godly, to fathers teaching their children
the songs of victory. I’m standing in a land that once called my fathers
a monkey, proud monkeys. In the pre-colonial days, our fathers stood 
over the bodies of white trespassers, my history lecturer once said. 
Nightly, I dream of a land of rainbows & greens, where truth is silver,
justice is golden, where we hold hands but not to mourn the dead.
God, I’m not black, I nigerian my skin into beauty, into the night’s hopes.
Lord, I want this country like an old widow wants her only surviving son.
I want this nation, my loyal dream, my beautiful maim, my fairest hope.
Nigeria, my forefather’s loyal love, proudest warthog, meekest stillness
where we stand on the shore, as a people, sweating with protest, prayers
waiting for God’s hands to touch anything –anything –& in the distance
the children chase fireflies, a bird hums: dis naija, great people, great ation.

Nome, Emeka Patrick is a Nigerian writer studying English Language and Literature at the University of Benin (UNIBEN), Nigeria. In 2018, he was awarded the 40th Festus Iyayi Award for Excellence (Poetry). His works have been published or forthcoming in Gaze journal, Beloit poetry journal, FLAPPER HOUSE, Crannóg magazine, Mud Season Review, Barnhouse journal and elsewhere.
7 Comments
Tope Omamegbe link
11/5/2019 11:24:06 pm

Words pure and true

Reply
Ugochukwu
15/5/2019 06:50:57 pm

I love how the N wears Nigeria with pride... I would say this poem offers hope in beautiful poetic lines.

Reply
Marriet Ify
16/5/2019 06:17:15 am

This poem is the Poets prayer for his Country
His Dream of what Nigeria can become outside curroption.
He hopes that someday the hands of God will turn things around
And make Nigeria great again.

Reply
Rachael Wanogho link
29/5/2019 02:37:13 pm

Any Nigerian who understands the state of the country can relate to the poets words. The poem is a combination of the past, the present and hopes for the future. I love how he made use of pidgin english to express his emotions, where he says "I nigerian my skin into beauty" which provides humour in a very sensitive matter. I love how the writing is a poem and prose all at the same time which translates to breaking out of the norm we find in literature.
In terms of improvements, all I can say is for him to write more and keep blessing us with creativity.

Reply
Emmanuel Faith
31/5/2019 07:29:07 pm

God, I’m not black, I nigerian my skin into beauty, into the night’s hopes.
Lord, I want this country like an old widow wants her only surviving son.
I want this nation, my loyal dream, my beautiful maim, my fairest hope.

What I love most about this poem beyond the bedazzling diction and eloquent expression is the faint ray of optimism, I have read this twice and I can't but appreciate the writer of this pristine piece of poetry.

I am glad I read this, and I wish the writer the very best as I look forward to reading more of his works on greater platforms

Reply
Ekawu
1/6/2019 12:53:12 pm

I wear Nigeria like a prayer twice, like my father's militia coat. I love the fact he mentioned the military because we rarely give them their accolades. No one fights so hard for their country like the men in the military, I so humbled he recognises that. The poem has rhythm, I like poems that makes you read them with drums and sounds. I would read this with supplied pride the writer used in writing it. As a writer myself I am big on arrangements, I am guessing arrangements made it lack in terms of winning.

Reply
Jack McKay link
6/7/2022 04:01:25 pm

Thiis was lovely to read

Reply



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