FROM THE COSMOS: A REJOINDER

After reading Tolu’s Cosmic Justice.

I am fire that’s cold and scorches,
I lurk in the open, dance in the open.
Let the cane rat burrow deep into the soil
I strike deeper, deep into the
dark abyss of Okun.
I ignore not the shallows, I shovel into
mansions in the alluvial
and make them into morgues.
Let the squirrel climb further up the Iroko.
Let the eagle soar towards the summit of Kilimanjaro.
Let man plane into the sky.
I strike beyond the headquarters of the sky god.
I visit prince,
I visit pauper
And I take them both on a visit
through ant holes to my hallowed abode.
I am that blind stare in the sharp pincers of a decapitated
crab.
I am the wine that kills the head of the Sallah ram; and charges
him against the Alhaji.
I am that red in the eye of the bull. I charge matadors to a
last-in-a-lifetime duel.
I am that disinfectant that tickles a demented cockroach.
I separate the babalawo from his cowries
And blinden the Seer with my sneer.
Yes, I’m that sneer in the potholes on your roads.
I’m here and there.
I sit on hills in Afghanistan and rest my back in America;
I beat my bongos in Bakassi and strum my bass guitar in Baghdad,
in mystic symphony.
I am older than the Tower of Pisa; gravity is as old as me.
I was the quiver in Pharaoh’s beard.
I could swap the Statue of Liberty’s torch with a Kalashnikov.
I can put a tinge in the eye of a Saddam Effigy.
I am the D in Nunc Dimittis
Hey,
Does that sound … Poetic?
Haha,
I could be a Poet,
I could be a Muse,
Or make muses.
I can make music,
I can make a bunch of broom out of you.
I can induce piety.
I raise my foot and the earth quakes;
Hurricanes and whirlwinds are my sneezes.
My yawns cause planes to plummet into the navel
of the earth;
And cause you to pray,
To gather up the husks of your unity.
Lest I forget,
You die and I die;
You die, I don't die.
I am Iku,
The Iku in Abiku,
Who never dies,
Who is indifferent to decency.
I take the, if you like, lavatorist.
Unconcerned if the putty is halfway or two-third out.
I imprison the prisoner,
Judge the Judge . . . What else? . . . Hmm
Always anticipate
Anticipate me.

BEAST OF HOW MANY NATIONS?

The Online Encyclopedia, Wikipedia says our own Uzodinma Iweala, son of former Nigerian Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, hails from Washington,DC and Nigeria. Bah, this author of Beast of No Nation is a FULL BLOODED NIGERIAN o. Make una no claim the guy.

Born in November 1982, and studied at Harvard. His debut novel is a formation of his thesis work at Harvard.

we stumbled into him on Funmi Iyanda's New Dawn and he says he's going back to school to read MEDICINE.Ol' boy take it easy. Lest, i forget, UNILAG is the place to study Medicine. It's my school. He can come. No, wait, i'm being frank. No jokes.

EVEN AMERICANS...

25% of HIV-Infected Americans Don't Know They Have It
More than a million Americans are believed to be living with the virus that causes AIDS, the government said Monday in a report that reflects both victory and failure at combating the disease. While better medicines are keeping more people with HIV alive, government health officials have failed to "break the back" of the AIDS epidemic by their stated goal of 2005. This is believed to be the first time the 1 million mark has been passed since the height of the epidemic in the 1980s.

Even Americans, with the army of news sources open to them, are ignorant or scared of the FACT of HIV/AIDS.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO THE FATHER OF AFRICAN LITERATURE

Congratulations to Prof. Chinua Achebe.

Chinua Achebe, is a Nigerian novelist and poet born Nov. 16, 1930. One of the most widely read authors of the 20th century.A diplomat in the ill-fated Biafran government of 1967-1970, Achebe is primarily interested in African politics, the depiction of Africa and Africans in the West, and the intricacies of pre-colonial African culture and civilization, as well as the effects of colonialization on African societies.


Achebe's 1958 novel Things Fall Apart considers the effects of colonialization on Igbo society, and has been translated into over 50 languages. He was once recalled by Nelson Mandela as a writer "in whose company the prison walls fell down."


In June 2007, Achebe was announced as the winner of the Man Booker International Prize in honour of his literary career


Well known for his classic critical text on Joseph Conrad, Achebe's 2001 Home and Exile reiterated his long-standing belief that Africa and Africans were being unfairly marginalized and dismissed by European and Western-oriented intellectuals.

He's still so good enough for the Nobel. there ain't no harm baggging them both - the MBI and the Nobel.

Ol' boy, but that book no dey loose 'im flavor sef - since 1958.

HAppy PAPA'S DAY!