Snapsong 84: CHRONICLE OF OUR KINGS

And here, in these brief lines,

The stories of our recent Kings

Who left our luckless nation

A legacy of scars and wails . . . .

   

I

Lamb of the Wolves

In civilian robes once there was

A figure who became King against his personal wish

All he dreamt was a humble seat in the Senate

But his handlers urged him to a loftier height

 

They said he was a simple man

Who started out life as a village teacher

A pious man who never missed a single prayer

He was often seen communing with angels

 

This was the lamb drafted for the helm

By a vulpine pack of party hacks

United by no higher purpose than ravenous greed

And fail-proof methods of nation-wrecking

 

They stole and stole and stole

Till the nation bled from their claws

Intoxicated by power so irresponsible

They boasted their rule would be for aye

 

Hunger wracked the nation

And Poverty undid her dreams

But a Party Chieftain declared with unimpeachable blindness:

“I have yet to see anyone feeding from the garbage dumps”

 

There goes the story

Of a vulpine pack led by a lamb

But the mask fell off their face one dreary dawn

When another “Fellow Nigerians”* assailed the air.

* The typical introductory greeting in the radio announcement of a military coup in Nigeria.

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