Quest!

Pressed hard from all sides
Like the squeeze of a boar constrictor.
Messed up at all sites
Like the trail of an alligator
In a body of water
Stagnant and muddy
From years of pollution and neglect.
The nation sits in depths of regret
As the people hang by their nails
To a sinking vessel.
A leaky vessel taking water
From faults
Man made faults
in the hull of the vessel.
Faults, there from years
of looting
of the public treasury
Years, too many for counting.
Blatant draining of public coffers
Of funds meant to be coffered
For schools, for tools,
For health care and people's welfare.
Funds meant for railroads, highways,
Seaports, airports.
Funds meant for bridges,ridges on farmlands.
Recreation for leisure and jobs,
For stadiums, and freedom
from boredom in youths.

Funds, chewed off and hauled off
To foreign banks
Like chunks of cheese.
Stolen by rats
In the dead of night.
Funds stolen in broad daylight, and
Stashed away as cash, homes and kind.
Hard to find.
Year after year, the runs are made
By waves of rats with cheese
Scurrying back and forth
Totally unrestrained.
Scurrying, by the very eyes
Of the cats there to guard.
Not a catch is ever made on their guard
Despite all the noise,
And grand poise,
Corruption reigns supreme
Eroding all the dreams
of greatness
As the vessel sinks,
Slowly
Taking in water,
Lots of water
Daily
From the faults, numerous faults
On the hull of the vessel.

The people hang on, as in a daze.
New faults are coming, gaping faults
Made by bombs and explosives
jammed in cars, getting past cat posts
Forcing death, untimely death, and injury
On the people.
Deafening sounds, terror,
Ground shaking horror, gruesome.
The people awake from their stupor
And ponder
And then they wonder
at their candor.
Candor, for the first time,
Candor.

All these years they took it
As in a jest,
The blatant abuse.
Having no rest
From east to west,
Took abuse at the behest
Of jesters, jokers and pranksters,
And remained happy, very happy
As in a daze.

Now wide awake
To face the test,
Just in time to do their part,
Not with bombs or bullets, but
With their brains, making inquiries
Sharp inquiries, one after the other
of the cats, the guards of the treasury,
Of their bosses, and the errand boys and girls
Sent by the people to speak for them.

The time is here for the people
To do their part.
Go on a quest.
The time is now.
Quest!

Chinwe Enemchukwu
August 30 2011.