JAWS

Aw, with this weather?
Let the bombs rain
Warmth come forth for
Those without a blanket
Merry where the cisterns leak
They will hug calabashes
And gamble away sanity
Like Zacheus, of Jenta Mangoro
They pay the taxman of spirits
And kill the fake heart within
Those without a heart fall
Within Jaws the city from chaos
Where anyone with some cash
Gets to thrust at Jaws
Sensitive mandibles between legs
There it burns the most
The rampaging fire in his tap
Seeking to be doused

ACHIEVING 2010 TODAY

My only surviving grandparent turned seventy one [71] late December 2009. She was full of anticipation for the new year, and I wondered why a septuagenarian would be so apt about 2010. She looks forward to seeing her last daughter tying them nuptials, another year of bliss hopefully, good health and perhaps this time next year, should be boasting of more grandchildren [and who knows, great grand children]. I understand her position towards 2010 from an old African proverb that says "what a child can't see, up on an iroko tree, an elder does sitting". She's seen it all, and not to give preference to the schemings of 2010, would be to fail from the start.

Today, the transfer window officially open in England, and those of you - like me, ardent football freaks would monitor, analyse, "mock-buy", predict and follow the happenings. Like all of you, I expect the right activity for my dear supported club. However, another transfer window opens today. "The Resolutions Transfer Market". With a lot of bad habits, misdemeanors, acts, immorals and shortcomings expected to give way to chastity, discipline, good behavior, "clean bills" and character. I ask how much do we need to buy good over bad? For some, its keeping a clean sheet. For others, its surpassing 2009's goals. In some cases, its just sustainability. In all cases, beating the gun won't be a good way to start a race of three hundreds and sixty five days.

Sometimes, we try, but don't try well enough to achieve the goals we set. Sometimes, we even set goals so we can - like every achiever, talk about goals and ambitions. We never understand the reasons why well enough, nor customize goals to our realities. I for one, fail on this basis. In 2009, three of six books were started; none has reached an advanced stage. Some manuscripts are even long forgotten. For some of the books, there are a lot of plot clashes. For others, its an issue of starting what I can't finish. Emotionally, I have failed to tie myself down to some commitments, responsibilities and demeanor. Yet, 2009 was a success for me. Yet, I crave to be better. To relate well with people, maybe not all people but most people; to set out on goals with precision, and to live a fulfilling life before God and before men.

Today, is my best shot at making 2010 the best of my life. Why should I wait for tomorrow am so uncertain about? Thus, I'd live it, like it was my last. And I expect you to follow suit. Don't be like Osuofia, who tries to calm a crying baby by asking it what it would do tomorrow, if it cried today. If you need to cry, please do cry today, when there are lots of shoulders to provide succor. I will live out 2010 today, stepping on them stones of yester years' experiences, and hope I achieve the goals of 2010, today!

THE SECRET ADMIRER

Indulged by beauty
Polished in the courts of the gods
Guile unmatched, so terrific
Heads unduely turn, adulations abound
But the secret admirer looks on
In the hope that fates swing you his way
As he in long-suffering, yearns for you
And lurks in shells, admiring your beauty
Tarry no more, in returning his love
For dear, as the old moon wanes
So his love lingers

Character

These past months, there has been a huge test for me, most especially as it concerns my personality and character. A redefinition of character was most paramount for me, in a period where in class the reigning thing was forgery of field data for dissertation purposes, while in my professional niche, a string of failures littered my world. There was a great drop in self-belief, and emotions were thumping high on the meter.

People around me just seemed to be getting things right at the time, while I was on the better side of Goliath. But I weathered the time. However, not without support from people I hold very dearly. No one even knew about my predicaments at home, so papa and mama had nothing to do with this. But I had quasi-professional help. I had a lot of character building and redefinition, and today I can proudly say, that am better off.

My spirit stands strong on a rock that outplaces Gibraltar's, and my personality has been repositioned, to beat every failure that looms. Ly Thi Bich Nga and Adeniyi Adeyemi have been very instrumental in this, and so is the Campus Life team, of the Nation Newspapers, most especially Ms. Ngozi Nwozor. Ufoma Egbamuno and Daniel Tanko, good friends have been on the flanks, holding up my hands in times of emotional wars.

The Compulsory One Year Youth Service in Nigeria

The Nigerian society is perplexed. It continues to trudge in antiquated paths, yet expect to get the best out of life, and perhaps, slide to the top of economies in the world. Well, it better reinvent its dreams. The other week, I finished school. I wrote my final exams, and father reminded me of Youth Service.

He so exalted it, that it seemed like the pinnacle of living here in Nigeria. Perhaps he still reminisce his days in camp. But I bet he doesn't realise things have changed since then. He has gone on to marry, have kids and now, one of them have turned a graduate. However, the thing is that the National Youth Corps Service have gone down the abysmal alley, becoming another scorn for Nigerians.

Today, you can bet, school proprietors are not recruiting staff. They have a steady flow of hands coming from orientation camps. All they need do, is apply for the next batch of Corpers, and yepee, the staff list is complete. Think also, of competent people who have the skills required to excel in certain fields who rather are confined to the walls of the classroom. Most of these guys are actually not trained to teach. And the last time I checked, the teachers Registration Council was rueing the quality of teachers in the country.

Yet, we want to be one of the top 20 economies come the year 2020. I think this is vague for us for now, and we are not really ready to achieve what we so babble about. Why must I be subjected to the scheme? Must I be far flung within my country because someone thinks its best for me? While somebody else earns fat pays for over pricing the Youth Corps apparel? Or recent graduates get posted as cannon fodder to some political cum religious battlefields?

Well, I'm a recent graduate, and am not ready to serve. Tell me I lack national consciousness, and I'd let you know that leaders are not made as such. What if these recent graduates are sent to such countries as Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan, Haiti, Burma, Zimbabwe et cetera, and made to contribute voluntarily to the building of these crumbling economies? Wouldn't we be doing great justice to the now capsizing image of "Giant of Africa"? I've seen many young people who claim they are serving in some purported hinterland, cooling off all year round in their homes somewhere, because somethings have traded places.

While some have played down their ages, because they want to get enlisted in this show of shame. Its compulsory, and I say that's not right. Give us the right to develop ourselves mentally and entrepreneurially, to enable us become independent, and social entreprenuers.

MAZEY LIFE

They say nothing is constant in life except change. Well, I just hope that if there should be change in anyone's life it should be positive. A negative course of change would just be disastrous. However, how about a neutral change? Can there be anything as such? a change but neutral, not really tilting, but changing in magnitude. If there were any philosopher who talked extensively about change, I'd really like to poke into their works, and delve more in to this story of change. I really bothers me, most especially when you seem to have just had some change in magnitude, but not in direction.

Life continues to prove impossible by the day, with the many surprises and challenges it throws my way, I guess with the belief that I can treat them aright. Well, life must understand that am weak...and really weak. By the day, I feel empty, like something I really want has been taken away from me, and am let to just drift off towards the Antarctica.

Then the talk about me being...Gay? I continue to ponder... They say am DYKE. Everyone in the LC says so, that its an identity that has glued to my shirts. Fine I just hope its the shirts, before my boyfriend...pardon me, my girlfriend finds out.

School is a mess sometimes. I can't imagine, just like yesterday, I got admitted into school. Now, 'they' say am a graduate, awaiting the "compulsory" one year youth corps service. I see it as a waste of one precious year, which I can use to better myself. What do you think?

Then my love life? YES I know you want to know. Its in shambles. However, don't let my sisters know, because it could be the beginning of something I can't handle, because my girlfriend might just come knocking on my door, demanding an explanation. But when would I grow up, and acknowledge that some things in life follow a predestined course?

My family? I adore them. I love them so much, even though the need to be independent remains top on my agenda, and my father doesn't want to hear any of those... What do I do with so much bothering my family now? You know, sometimes I hate the fact that we are still where we are. But perhaps, everythings are for a reason. I just hope so.

When do I finish my dissertation? I bet you should ask my supervisor. I don't know myself. I just want to pack my bags and be off to some unknown place, where perhaps, life can continue for me, from where it has presently paused.

THE MYTH OF MIDDLE EARTH

The warlords of Mordor in fierce battle cry
Allies with Orcs, Dementors and Sauron
Seek the white gates of Gondor
In a frantic bid to seize middle earth

Time upon time, the ring long lost
The sovereignty of middle earth given up
Gondor gone merry, Mordor in rubbles
A surge from bottom earth very imminent.

AN ODE TO POETRY

Man's language in pleasure
The most perfect of speeches
Brings nearer the truth –
Truth seen with passion

Truth united with pleasure
Calls imagination to the help of reason

Caused by intense realization,
Life explores its amazement
The spontaneous overflow of
Powerful feelings – emotions;
Emotions put in measure

Its ingenuity translated
In to language busy about imitation
Life really, is poetry.

RAIN

With the company of thunder and flash
Where the mountains agree with the clouds
Lo in the land ‘the bard sang about'
Downpour unannounced, cold uncontrolled
Sweaters, jackets, turtlenecks and cardigans
Pandemonium, stillborn lakes and droning roofs
What is it that pelts on roses?

Dust, fog and sand all of blessed memories
And baptism wholly accomplished
For old things did pass away
As the third of these poured down
Storm, haze and rain
Baptizing and springing to life, new converts
Heartily welcomed to this sinful world.
But it sounds silly that it's just raining

MUCH ADO ABOUT SOMETHING

Done to death by slanderous tongues
Was the hero that here lies dead
In dungeon of their rights
Gives him fame which never dies
Such was the death that died with shame.