Two Poems by Ngozi Olivia Osuoha

 

SEARCHING FOR REST

 

I have been here singing this song of pain

Trying to understand why the world is cruel and life unfair,

But it seems I sink deeper into void and emptiness.

 

My voice picks high notes and transcends into low frequencies

Yet, I cannot hear myself.

 

Why would my soul thirst for peace and yet find war

As if I am a warrior?

Why would I hope for joy and bottle up sadness in my spirit

As though I am a beast?

 

Friends turn down my hand, and partners crush my love

Yet my body ages as though I make progress.

 

In life, what else could be more fulfilling if not unity and peace,

Could death bring growth?

 

Heathens rage, the earthen vessels break

Breakfasts spill, lunch freeze, and dinner sour,

How can my soul then find rest?

 

Daily I long and search for rest

Still my nest become a pest and my best turn jest, dipping into my crest zest.

Shady, rocky, deadly, heady, sloppy, 

Then I ask who makes headway in muddy waters?

 

 

THE MONSTER AND BEAST

 

Here comes the monster

Crawling like a lobster

In a huge cluster

Booming like a youngster.

 

See him in green strength

Teeming at full length,

Yet he is a beast

Setting the sun in the east.

 

Raping every breast

Cutting bare their chest,

Forcing them to the west

And stealing their rest.

 

In little circles and clusters

They become tyrants

In small groups and fosters

They eat up our elephants.

 

Rest is far from me

Hope flies away

Joy wonders aloof

Happiness deserts my land,

Yet they call me blessed.

 

These monsters cage me in agony

And these beasts take advantage of me,

I am wet with pain

And watered in anger,

Fear sings loud against me

Tear and wear patch my life

Who has not heard me cry?

 

Loud and constant, I wail

Weeping to be consoled.

 

Hitherto, I mourn, mourning even in the morning

Moreso, I am nice, even at noon

Thereto, I knit, knitting like a knight at night

My mouth, my knee, my sight, all shake and quake, sharing in quarantine

And yet this rest doesn't want to come!

 

Ngozi Olivia Osuoha is a Nigerian poet/writer/thinker/author. She's a graduate of Estate Management with experience in Banking and Broadcasting. She has featured in over sixty international anthologies and has equally published over two hundred and sixty poems in over twenty five countries. She has authored twenty three poetry books and some of them are archived in the United States' Library of Congress. She is also a tailor.

Some of her poems have been nominated for both the Best Of The Net Awards and Pushcart Prize. Some of her works have also been translated into and published in some languages, including Spanish, Arabic, Farsi, Macedonian, Russian, Romanian, Khloe, Polish, Serbian, Chinese, Greek, Hindi, Assamese, Scots, among others.