THEY LIED!

By Agnes Johnson

They said when we die,
We shall become angels.

So, we hurried and scurried,
Pleaded to be killed and buried

Threw out the day before dew,
Smashed our grandmother's earthen pot,
handed down to us by our mothers' mothers

Emptied the barn,
And blessed the travelers with its goods and food

Gave out our best wine to swine,
Sold the gourds to the village-crazed bard

Traded our masks and totems
In exchange for sweets and luxuries

Razed our shrine to dust,
And sent our gods to flames

Exchanged our cultures and traditions
In place of bleak futures and fool notions

Condemned our priests and soothsayers,
Embraced their prophets and vision

Sold out our children for pennies
To strangers across the water.

They said to be the best
We had to lose ourselves.

But they lied!
All we became was a lone shadow of ourselves 
with no reflection of the rest!

Writer's Biography

Agnes Johnson is an English Language/Political Science graduate from Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education. She is a poet who takes delight in writing from a woman's point of view. She has been featured in different anthologies in print and digital. She is currently a student at KAP Television and Film Academy.

She enjoys reading stories, poems, and articles. Her favorite authors are Odia Ofeimun, Chimamanda Adichie, Buchi Emecheta, Chinua Achebe, Nora Robert, James Hardly Chase, Femi Osofisan, and Maya Angelou.

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