When minimum wage
Is mining rage
Give us a living wage
because your pay
is a smiling pot
not shy to burst
Let our sweat
tally with our raise
because yours
is an elephant
floating without
wings
We come in peace
but we could come
as bricks
crashing heads
maiming limbs
Our Lords in Temples
of chop and clean
mouth
baboons with reptile
scales
give us living wages
so you won’t mine
our rage
because it will surely
come
like a thief
in the night
Maximum rage will mill Minimum wage
I won’t carry the news
wrapped with wails
as mails to be read
by plundered heads
who are now like nails
that had tried hard
to be heard
but are fastened
to a rebellious
gear
waiting to throttle
on a destructive path
I will tell them
I heard someone
said
“money is scarce
but a new witches’
broomstick
I must fly
at all cost
to the moon
even at noon.
I need this fast
a flying mat
to show
you complaining
Lizards
that money is there
but not for wages
even when you
are raging.”
My advice is like
a smooth loaf
of bread
you may digest
it with grace
or wolf it with
anger
such muse
will help you
yield to my
words
with force
So, don’t delay
kindly
break a few heads
those ones
whose take home
envelopes swell
like River Niger
on rainy days
then
your cry will fly
after dawn
WE then
smoke some holes
where our sweat
lives
pregnant snakes
that swallowed
it will
cough
painful throaty sounds
and the years
of the locusts
that ravaged
our land
will be restored
and what was
swallowed
will be vomited.
This will only
happen if
the pressure
is communal
without betrayal
of purpose
and
of vision
- By Akan Essien
Uyo