INFAMY
These same pillars
Have guarded and shield My Innocence
Like Alsatians
For years Un-numbered
But...
Before it today You knelt
Full of agility
Full of life
Full of vigor
Full of valiance
Determined!
Your power overshadows my fragility
I cried out loud for help
But even the Windows in the heavens
Were shut
God was asleep
I pleaded out "please... please... pleaaassse...
Have mercy"
But your muahaha was the only mercy
I could get
Your ransome! I must pay
Your. Will. Must. Be. Done!
With your staff and master key
Standing tall and proud
Ready to drill deeper than the sea
You broke open the fountain
Wherein my pride and prejudice lie
It Flow, in cold warm blood
With your deuce, twice as tall
You stripped me off my primehood
And Sipped off my prestige
Right before my helpless arms
My eyes dripping thick maroon pigments
I lie there, a prey
Like a lamb led to the slaughter
In horror
A horror
Knowing not what or how to feel
It was thorough for me
Yet you...!
You rode all along and alone
To Canaan
Flowing with blood and honey
With your hocky rocky pendulum glide
Full of glee
Full of hillarity
Full of giggles and guffaws
And you breathed your last
The breath of pleasure. Satisfied!
As you gather together your buckle
Lying gratefully
In the pool of blood, my own
I watched in helpless rage
My Innocence evaporating and staggering
Into the hysterical skies
They seem to be saying "that's good for you"
As I gather to my breast
The pieces of my spilled and splashed self
I wonder even as I wander
From where
Will I build my story Again?
Will there be any h(ear)t
To listen to, and see through this pain?
But...
This blood and water
That I shed today
This blood and water
I now see
This blood and water
That flow from between my pillars
This blood and water...
Shall Live in continuum
Through history
In Infamy
ABOUT THE POET.
Adamu Philip Nantip was born and raised in Langtang North L.G.A of Plateau. I'm a final year student of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria; Department of English and Literary Studies.
BACKGROUND OF THE POEM.
Background of the poem: The Nigerian society, lately, has been witnessing a rapid increment in crime. Not just political and civil bedeviling this time, but also a lot of social insecurities, as well as moral rottenness. And all the aforementioned anomalies largely grow from the throwing of human dignity and conscience to the gutters and to dogs to pick, and also as a result of idleness. Alexander Hamilton once says, "if you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything." Little wonder the year 2020, which was tormented by the Covid-19 and the "Stay at home" policy, birthed more cases of sexual and ethical immorality than seen in a long while in the history of Nigeria, all due to idleness. Thus, countless cases of rapes and attempted rapes, for whatsoever reason(s) that was witnessed, given the circumstances, was quite appalling.
Though many alleged cases, and cases of rape, have been recorded and reported before, and also after the year 2020, a thousand more were(and are) never recorded or published given the surrounding logistics, background or society of (and around) the raped, and the forms of rape itself. Many victims, including maiden girls, children, victims of kidnap, house maids/wives and many more, were denied voice, or even further disparaged and derided for attempting to air out travails in the hands of their predators. Some were not believed, or threatened with death( if not beseeched by it during the act) by the perpetrators or his cohorts.
Given this background and more, (which cannot necessarily be captured in print), the poet decries the menace of rape and condemns its very idea and act. Deploying the first person narrative point of view, the persona, who appears to have suffered this inhuman state directly, tries to sell the story of her gruesome experience to outside world, invoking images (her selected diction) that will reverbrate the encounter as it was, in the mind of the reader. The persona wonders, if anyone in the world, will listen to her pain ever, and that from where will she start.
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