African Bible
James Onyebụchi Nnaji
The land needs your anger
To feed the soil
That is dry as firewood
Against the coming tremor
Under your feet
Written in the African bible
Before you were born
The land needs your anger
White-hot
Like wild-bush-fire in harmattan
Ikpa, the ancient musical drums
Have been burnt in the last
Family deliverance prayers
By the Man-of-God
Tipsy on anointing
For the crucifixion of blessed figurines
Written in the African bible
The land needs your anger
Like blood of the lamb
Sacrificed in place of Isaac
Today that strangers
Occupy the Promised Land
Farming the sacred grove
And hewing firewood
From your family palm trees
The land needs your anger
Like rain in Sahara desert
For your only cup of inheritance
Has been stolen
Because it’s against the African bible
And given to women to throw away ashes
By the spiritual scavengers
Of family curses
Who dig up phantom talisman
In merchandised cleansing in marketplace
Of broad day light miracles
The roadside scripture tolls
In tongues announcing the destruction
Of the many mansions in your father’s house
Your ancestors had gone to prepare for you.
The ancestral ceremonial spear
Broke in pieces
The ruins eaten by termites
You can no longer pass it on.
The land needs your anger today
That you live in a wasteland
And cannot speak, for what happened
Weighs heavy in your mouth
*
James Onyebụchi Nnaji was educated in English in the University of Nigeria where he also served as the Editor of The Muse Journal of English and Literary Studies. His writings have appeared in Drumtide Magazine (USA), African Crayons Magazine, The Curlew Magazine (Wales), Ògèlè: An Anthology of Creative Literature Vol.2, Wreaths for a Wayfarer: An Anthology in Honour of Pius Adesanmi, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada and elsewhere. He has been receiving recognitions for his writing in contests since 2009;including Prize for the Best Literary Artist of the Year 2011 at the University of Nigeria Literary Art Festival and most recently, as 3rd prize winner, 2019 Poetry Matters Project Literary Prize (Augusta, Georgia, USA). He lives in Enugu, Nigeria
*