14/08/2023
Poem Title: Showers of Wrath
© Abass Sesay
Rain, a shower of hope for cultivators and herdsmen
They rely on you for sowing and grazing
Homes use your drops for drinking, cooking, laundering and bathing
Oh rain! We used to know you as showers of blessings
But August 14th has proven you as showers of wrath and pain
Wrath that wrapped hundreds of innocent souls in rubble
Souls who slept with determinations and hopes to see another bright day to eke a living
Alas! It was like a dream!
All gone to the Maker with rains in the eyes
Blood and tears flow in tributaries of fear
Rain drain! What have our hands done wrong to mete such a horrific tragedy like this on us?
Is it a payback for environmental degradation?
Oh no! You shouldn't have descended so hard on us like this
Because we didn't complain
We were good with the extreme sun rays that warmed our dark skins
That reminds us of our African heritage
Your altered patterns have eroded soil fertility
Resulting our harvests to inferiority
Oh ancient rain! We used to hear your calamities afar
But now they are present with us
And forever they will remain with us
Posterity would judge your actions of cruelty
And never in their existence will they lean on you as a helper
Raindrops, you have never had offsprings that were callous and mindless to your neighbors this way
But those you reproduced on August 14th were not your true replica
They have smeared your untainted image of humility and kindness to humanity
And that makes us to cast aspersions upon you
Come out and exonerate yourself from this blame if you're indeed a true neighbor
We know you can't, because your are not a sincere and true friend
Your emissaries: tremor, mudslide and flooding have indeed confided in us your real identity
Oh imposter! Why did you unleash so much pain, trauma and devastation on us?
You struck a wrench in our hearts
And that scar would forever stay afresh on our minds
Just as our hearts get jittery and fill with disquietude upon hearing Civil War, Ebola and COVID-19.
©Abass Sesay
