Black Orphaned Boy

By Nwokoye Emmanuel Maduabuchi

Yesterday when I returned from tears,
My Mum told me of the Land of no return.
With tears she recalled that day, when the bright dawn merged with the darkened mist;
As the Manuelita embarked on a voyage that now made me a ‘Black Orphaned Boy’.

“Kiss with tears its shores”, she said;
For therein lies the gaggled footprints of your forebears.
“But do well to return”, she said;
For with you lies the clues to unravel the maze of a cruel history.

And so, speedily I went to that treasured shore,
And was greeted by the venomic clogs that pierced once regal fists.
“Blame not the Arrow of God for this”, they said;
For it was the Arrow of men that shot and made blind, the bright dawn.

Shed not tears at the tales of my Mum to me;
For you are yet to hear my own tales of the Igbo landing at the Dunbar creek.
Consider it not as mere fables of a forgone flow;
For today, its salty tides watered my feet and I felt again, the wailings of a yet-pacified revenge.

I inherited not the pains, but the scars of a deep war wound;
For even my dead are yet to see the end of war.
Ask me not of the whereabouts of their graves;
For it was mere dusts that were gathered for they that didn’t make it back home.

Nwokoye Emmanuel Maduabuchi, OMV., is a creative Writer and Poet. His works have made both International and Local appearances in Literary Journals and Magazines. He has been previously published by Brittlepaper, Botsotso, NiCE magazine and elsewhere. He is presently a Theology Student at SS. Peter and Paul Major Seminary, Bodija, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. His Twitter handle is @EastPOET19.