Regardless of your feelings about the #StopKony campaign this week, we can all agree that war is ugly, no matter who the villains or perpetrators, and that it does not end when the guns are silenced.
Timothy Ogene shares this poem with us, which was written for a small town in Liberia where he currently lives. He writes, “Everyday I see and feel the sad impact of the war. Though it ended a few years ago, it still rages in the subconscious of the people, brutally eating up their minds.”
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Night Flight Above a Post-war Town
By Timothy Ogene
On this wingless flight
I hover above ground watching
roofless houses smiling
like toothless grannies
crack son the walls revealing deep cuts
healed but bleeding
frameless doors displaying a mosaic of hollow
faces staring into empty space, expectant
open windows leading to wandering
minds murdered by sights of blood
; victims of a mind-game
played with guns and machetes
from my vantage point
I see shoulders hurting from
years of hauling
bags and rags
behind every cotton tree, silhouettes of the
slain stand motionless and sad
shallow graves reveal skulls of infants
begging to grow old and rest in peace
peace is here but far away
busy in the tent of the rich
when less busy, she’ll smile on the
scars of her cruel predecessor.
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About
Timothy Ogene is a poet and social entrepreneur. He was born and raised in Nigeria but has lived and travelled in Liberia, Sierra Leone, the United States and Germany. His poems have appeared in literary kicks, Ovi Magazine, the Daily Observer, Haggard & Halloo, Underground Voices, the 2010 Arvon International Poetry Competition Anthology, Writing Raw, Snake Skin and are forthcoming in Subtle Tea, the Dark Eye Glances 2012 Anthology and other publications. He was shortlisted for the 2010 Arvon International Poetry Prize. Timothy served as the Earth Charter Youth Co-Representative for Africa & the Middle East, was selected to meet Dr. Jane Goodall in 2008, and received the Dekeyser & Friends Fellowship in 2009. Timothy currently lives in Robertsport, Liberia where he is the programs guide at Strongheart Fellowship, an innovative learning program for young people. You can follow his poems and work at: http://slitdrum.tumblr.com/
Have some poems you’ve written or that you treasure that you’d like to share with fellow aid workers and do-gooders? Please send them my way at email.howmatters@gmail.com!
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