Humphrey Ogu

What Have I Not Seen in this Land?
 
I have seen people die of dehydration 
in a land crisscrossed by streams

I have seen people die in goitrous condition
in a land brimful of brackish waters 

I have seen people die of starvation 
in a land superlatively fertile 

I have seen people die in destitution 
in a land endowed with resources 

I have seen people rust from privation
in a land saturated with oil and gas

I have seen people die in agitation 
for emancipation from deprivation

I have seen homes in desolation 
vultures and flies feasting, singing and dancing about . . .

I have seen trees in bloom defoliated 
and beautiful young girls deflowered . . .

I have seen a fecund ecosystem despoiled  
the flora shorn of their rich adornment 

I have seen hopeless enterprising youths 
wasted by time and circumstance 

I have seen floods: tear-flood, blood-flood . . .
even blood-spillage and oil spillage

I have heard people from arid lands cry of constipation 
while people from arable lands cry of starvation 

What have I not seen 
in this very wetland?
Wetin my eye see, pass my eye:
my mouth no fit talk am finish . . .



A poet, playwright, and fiction writer, Humphrey Ogu, is a media and public relations practitioner based in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. He is the immediate past Vice Chairman of the Rivers State branch of the Association of Nigerian Authors. Humphrey is the author of Echoes of Neglect and a co-editor of Virtuous Verses (an anthology of poems). He currently works in the Information, Publications & Public Relations Unit of the University of Port Harcourt, where he serves as Associate Editor on the Editorial Board of UniPort News.