A Poem

 By Chioma Benedicta Okwuelum

THE CREATOR'S CRIME

A mother's child

A father's child

A child's mother

A child's father

All culprits of the

Creator's crime.

The pigment of our flesh

Womb weapons for our massacre

The red Sea floods our streets

Sirens become the music of our souls

Even our toddlers, the lyrics could tell

Incessant echoes of fireworks

Fireworks in broad daylight

Sending chills down our moribund souls

A mother's child

A father's child

A child's mother

A child's father

Dispatched to a land

A land of wailing ancestors.

Would this ever be

Home away from home?

Where mama, her dish

Of peace could serve?

On a ceramic plate of love?

With a glass of acceptance?

Where the pigment of our flesh

Blend in with all around?

Birthing harmony, long desired?

A mother's child

A father's child

A child's mother

A child's father

In a home away from home

A home where egalitarianism reigns.

Baptized by their callous hands

Immersed in River Prejudice

Reborn with a heart of stone

Christianed the society's Ishmael

Criminality our garment of identity

When would we be free?

To wear our own identity

To own a name, not their name

When would this punition

For the Creator's crime end?

A mother's child

A father's child

A child's mother

A child's father

All culprits of the

Creator's crime.

Author's Bio

Chioma Benedicta Okwuelum is a graduate of English and Literary studies in Delta State University, Abraka. She has written some unpublished creative works encompassing poems, short-stories and plays. Nnamdi, a short-story she recently concluded is weaved around the African belief and preconception appertaining to reincarnation. Currently, she is writing a short-story entitled, Human Library which mirrors the emotional struggles different individuals in the society encounter in the course of their existence.