Mind Anarchy - Poems by Victor Ehikhamenor
- By Victor Ehikhamenor
- Published May 25, 2005
- Poems
- Unrated
Victor Ehikhamenor
Victor was born in Edo State, Nigeria, and grew up sorrounded by the folk traditions, spiritual festivals and art that now flower in his paintings and poems. He says of his works, "I am looking beyond the surface of everything?to commune with the spirits I have to look beyond the surface. And if we all do we will be surprised at what we see." Oddly enough, Victor who obtained his degree in English and Literature works as a UNIX Systems administrator, the interesting mixture of art and technology that the need to gestate the creative spirit until it can support itself fosters in many artists. Victor who currently resides in Maryland says the late poet and literary critic, Dr. Frank Uche Mowah, was his mentor. He is the author of Sordid Rituals, a collection of poems.
View all Entries by Victor EhikhamenorMIDNIGHT AT NOON
Last time I looked up in
A hazy horizon
The sun promised to be up
Unhindered with the usual
Arrows stinging
Unshielded heads
To illuminate the plateau
Of Jos
And the burdened heap
Of Lagos
Not to be wasted on merry-go-round
Rhetoric that reeks in the parliament
Like unburied corpse littering streets
After tribal clashes
Now when I looked in
The dark eerie eyes
Of the oracle of the hill,
darkness beclouds me/
it's already midnight
Midnight at noon
the gods became
Dead dreams
Revolting rivers
Barren barns
Stale tale
And caking lakes/
Melancholy echo
The songs that welcomed
A forbidden moon
In a denied noon
It is midnight at noon
A sudden eclipse of time
And the acolytes have
No oil for the priest's lantern
As we wallow in the wilderness
Of carnivorous cannibals
Not knowing our head nor
Tail,
Parliament is busy dividing its loot
Like the Europeans dividing
Africa in Berlin abattoir.
ACROSS
Great fuzz over
Hazy times,
I hulled stones and rocks
Puked fire,
Just to make my face menacing
Enough, so I could
Pass through without
Feeling the acid ting
Of your bladed tongue
Stenciling lies on my back.
Rudiment of road blocks
I have to cross,
I need the torch of past
Pugilist that have seen the
Ghost danced naked around
Cross roads of human furnace
This is my place,
This is my face
Though full of gallows
That gallop skulls and
Cross bones/ I need the
Fearless unicorn to ride me
Across your Red Sea, why you
Feast on golden eggs
I hold the parchment
Of your iniquity and thread
Gingerly like a sore
Nosing around a ripe face/
If I jaunt catch me if you can or
We shall swim in excrement.
MIND ANARCHY
Indecision
Scissors my sense
Your last scent
Sent my feet walking.running
Like a deity you were made, strong
Heart turns jelly upon your eyes
Making minds look like cooked cabbage.
The elders are scrambling for libations
And sacrifice
To the rivers you swam last.
The cellar of rare wine
Belongs to your green vine-
Yard,
Their bread
They said is from your fertile earth.
You are the rain
You are the thunder
That sent men seeking refuge
Under the Baobab tree.
But why the anarchy
Why the chaos, when did you become
A time bomb taking it's time
And brewing like an overfed embryo.
Getting bigger as dawn turns dark?
I stretch my tongue today
And close my eyes,
Awaiting the taste of your sacrament.
Let it drop gently
Like the last bit of rains
And may it cool me.and these
Burning desires.