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/POEMS   The Native  Alerler nor tor!  Vha der ekor!! Hawkers cried at morn,  S elling corn wine, kai-kai, and  p alm wine  Under trees at  noon  In the even, meat, ingredients  And mushrooms  The routes of trade the native plied. Stood tall Among the kuku-ruku hills  As a Colossus, war-like tribes-men The native of Etsakor who cut his teeth  In the culture of his nativity  Strong, stout, ebony and cheerful  A silhouette against even glows. Contoured, frazzled faces Told a story hard Of women who wove ogbegbe, agbikhia Which khaki and calico  Sewn they the utebe, order   And the oryana attires  The routes of trade the native plied. A carved tooth-gap And facial marks  For identity, aesthetics or commemoration  Another vocation for the farmer  Whose sheathed cutlass and hoe Over one shoulder hung  in erbuma sack  As a gun on another hung. The routes of trade the native plied...

  /POEMS RACE EXTINCTION  Death cannot extinguish or erase A man's name  When he lived a life  Of virtues and legacies. None can kill a message  For racial prejudice  But the messenger  of a noble creed Borne by a People. War cannot efface  From the Earth's surface  On the premise of racism  or fame Any People or Nation. Yet extinct people exist  Among the Earth's races  Who adapt to climates divers To new worlds by emigration. And interracial marriages  Who evolved in languages  And cultural assimilation. /Race Extinction

/POEM   /OUR HOUSE IN AFRICA Our house in Africa  A mud walled house which sat On surroundings large but neat Her cap was of old thatch And a fence of bamboo. Our house in Africa  Her facade marked by chalk paint  Generous clay on entrance lobby  The family courtyard spread  And a front gate of bamboo. Our house in Africa  She overlooked the iroko tree Who grew strong from the ages His strong boughs far spread  And against perilous tempest. Our house in Africa  She overlooked a virgin forest  And the iroko's cultured root Evergreen tree whose foliage smoked From religious fires at his foot. Our house in Africa  In those dark days birds nested Many coloured and speckled birds On the revered iroko of our ancestors  Who clothed the iroko tree. Africa Poems