WORDS ARE HIDDEN

A poem that emphasizes on the sacrifices of African ancestors during the pre-colonial, colonial and post colonial period

Hidden words are like dead bodies in mythic graves

Partly unraveled by the epitaphs on tombstones

Hidden words are like an unfallen rain

Curled inside by the dark stretched bodies of brooding cloud

Words are hidden, braced in unseen alphabets

Hidden under the punctured wrapper of poverty

Where sun rays pierced into the nakedness of helpless dreams

Hidden between gouge healed into scars

A grave the past dug for the eyes of tomorrow

Words are hidden, enchanted in the vision of the blind

Of tales the tongue dare not swirl to reveal

Hidden on the pieces of broken tongues

Where experience dine and wallow with clung teeth

Hidden inside the dark tears of girls

Prised by the groin of drunken gods

Walloped by the long stripes of deadly threat

Words are hidden, in the cold belly of time

Where death cease inside the palm of afterlife

Hidden inside the tomb stomach of snakes of men

Who entwines speech like a victorious legion of army

Hidden inside the pot bellies of epicure's power

Of stolen sweats with a s nap of fingers

Words are hidden, in the footprint of time

Pasted scarcely on the skin of man

Hidden on the tiny particles on shrinking whetstone

Of coarse emotions which are sharpened into pointed dagger

Hidden on the faded inscription on the face of the air

Hidden in the faint sound of a dead voice

Hidden in the cries of a son rapped up in his mother's ghost

Hidden in the wailing from the strings of piano

Words are hidden,

Hidden words are pits whose brims are dressed

In beds of roses, gouse and waving arms of daffodils

To console the white angel that lies among deep darkness

Written by~ Adedeji Raphael