Rain that won’t reign
By Akan Essien
THOSE that made
the forecast said,
you were like
an harmattan
freezingly cold
with a convoy
of bad tempered wind
and dark-smoky fogs
who never saw
sunshine as
a brother.
They said when
You will fall
it will be a deluge
that will
wash away
all dirts
and clean
the gutters
so that they
smell nice
and become robed
in white apparels.
Finally,
You came down
in trinkles
neither here nor there,
after hues, cries
and sighs that
had become
abnormally constant
You could
only touch the hairs
of our heads
leaving the
bodies mummified
against progress
retrogressive
even in peace.
So what did You do
well?
O this rain!
Whose makers
never gave us
peace?
Our ears were always in detention
our eyes constantly
in bounds
by the stories of what
mighty feats you
will bring
and had wrought
in Your first incarnation..
But You reigned in hiccups
with a pointless compass
as your friend
No wonder
You scurried away
Nicodemusly
almost like a marooned
witch caught
offside her timeline
to Your dusty town
without any miracles
performed
leaving with us
lasting scars
of misnormer
and moral burden
of a twin rain
more vociferous
in its first life
* Essien is an Uyo-based writer and publisher
