YOU SEE, ALL MY FOREFATHERS!

I have forgotten the tales
The songs and the proverbs
And I am left with the seeming inspired adverts.
I am or I was told,
The reincarnate of the palm wine tapper
All I have tapped is the little oil money in different taps
No more trees for tributes
Only rich enough for none but myself.

I am the swimmer at the dancing braids of the lake
The favoured tadpole of the gods,
I guess I was told,
Alas, the waters have gone green with envy for land
The purity of sounds has left for the bubbles of fangs
Nothing can swim, not even me
Except nylon, plastic and industrial spills.

I am the broken hearted teacher who says textbook fantasies
Galvanising theories at the detriment of truth-bitter as it is.
My forefathers were warriors
Dying in drowning truth bottles
Migrating at the disgust of in-betweens
But at this behest of incest
We gather like insects to watch our denigration
To what we call “better generation”.

We have lost our will to fight
So we must lose our will to laugh.
We have left the saving grace of a nation to politicians
We have cried to God but have forgotten who we are and used to be
We have died the real death
And what we are now, LIVING SHADOWS.

We are now foregrounded paintings of market activity
We are now huge clowns at stage to other nations
We are now Soap Operas that takes the review of all and Oprah
We are now newspaper columns without conscience
We are now a people without with leap and without patience
We are now, a land, not bare but with weeds-the land itself moaning at the many boils on its skin.

Let us rise and clear the land
Cultivate the soil
Resurrect the buried values
Prune out the struggling weed
Send emissaries to the fishes with a sign of a white flag
Make sacrifices at crossroads
Plant new trees to wade off the strong winds from our backyards
Let us never forget who we are.

I am no son of a slave
Though slavishly trained
I need no bully as brother
I need no sully as sister
I need no Guerrilla as Government
I need no ruthless rut as redeemer
I need no menace as messiah
I need no sets of Pillagers as sets of Political Party
I need no faulty voter’s vortex
With nature, with sounds and with men
You all can see, all my forefathers lived in free and fair contest.
10/07/2010

So far...The Book Reviews are coming

The oxymoronic title of the pint-sized collection of poems largely ignites the socio-political satire intended by the promising poet. Armed with a simple language couched in metaphorical expressions. The poet ensures his themes run deeper into the bellies of 'the guilty' and 'the murderers of sleep'.
The Sun

Morgan uses his lines to abhor injustice, poverty,lawlessness and ignorance. His poems evoked emotions, sympathy and regret . It is a voice from the clandestine world calling mortals to stand up and face their future, and that no excuses sufficed to remain in deplorable conditions.
The Nation

The book expresses Oluwafemi's candid view of the ( Nigerian) society in which he lives.
Tell Magazine

Via satiric pieces, the author questions the lack of progress caused by recalcitrance etched in the hearts of those at the helm of affairs. And if you don't agree with his angst rhymes and endless fatalism, you will be subdued by the veracity akin to them.
ThisDay
Politically blunt and an outpouring of a fearless pen handled by a filled skull; the book provides a graphic perspective on variegated happenstances shaping the metaphoric thinking of the motley occupant of the Nigerian landscape. It is more than just a collection of poems.
Ayodele Obajeun
Scribbler and maker of travelogues

This collection is a brewery of the pains of the societal squalor . The music
of silence is betrayed by the dialectics of drummings, using laughter and dance to liven the rhythm of mass resistance...the poet has made a clear stand.
Kunle Ajayi
Author, I Will Write a Poem

The title, Silent Drummings may be taken to mean the quiet or gentle pangs of the oppressed, the disposed, the poor and the suffering masses of the Nigerian/African society. The work is set in a post-colonial era, exposing the horrors of tyranny...

Shvoong.com