Dawn

(For Jos)

From dreams haunted by ghouls and gremlins,

Dawn froths with the foam of new birth;

Brimful with the sun-kiss of hope -

Oh the bitter-kola taste of yesterday

At this gate of new beginnings, we stand -

Pondering the brooding clouds

As old sins give way to the new…

I am the cockcrow witness, on one foot;

Peering at the vast smoldering rubble -

The charred remains of dreams and laughter in mid-growth

The withering palms and decapitated dogonyaros

In the distance, I can still hear the retreating footfalls

Of the Horsemen with faces shrouded in turbans of hate

Fading into the dispersing vapor of the yawning dawn.

As old sins give way to the new…

I watched the kind rays of the sun peck up the dew on the rubble

And dry the tears off the bleeding hearts of Jos

And from these hill which once kept a silent watch over our dreams

Shall sprout a new song of hope

As old sins give way to the new…

I watched hope gather the furrows of worry from the face of time

And I assumed the praying mantis poise of defense and prayer

As old sins give way to the new…

The love we have known has died with the retreating moon

Its receding steps shatter the peace we have known like a mirror

 

As old sins give way to the new…

    @James Eze