And The Voters Went Out To Vote
(Lament for the 2023 Nigerian election)
By Chudi Okoye
(First Draft: Feb 27, 2023)
Oh hear now all ye here gathered
Words akin to ones once rendered
By the Lord in his Parable of the Soils
Here recast as a parable about spoils
The voters recently went out to vote
In yet another quadrennial civic float
To rekindle hopes for a better existence
In this land mired in manifold pestilence
As they voted for varied political herds
Some votes scattered as wayside stray
Trampled ‘n devoured by political birds
Which yapped ‘n flapped ‘n flew away
Some votes were a fetish of foolish hope
On the stony promises of carpetbaggers
Who offered little else but foxy swagger
So they withered as their casters groped
Other votes, propelled by political gust
Landed on thorny grounds full of dust
Where they were choked by the greed
Of grasping politicos of their own creed
Alas, as the last votes were being counted
It appeared not enough had been planted
In soils fertilized by the real patriotic desire
That our country’s recovery would require
Thus, while we surge in our present battle
To confront elites who are clearly rattled
We’ll prepare for another tetradic pageant
To vote for a dream that’s now emergent!
