POEMS BY OZIOMA ONUZULIKE
DOGS AND THEIR WATER IN BROKEN POTS

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PERSONAL STATEMENTS | "WEEKEND SEX" WITH GOLD CIRCLE CONDOM | YEAR 2000 | WHER ARE THE TRUTH'S PEOPLE? | TRUTH | THE ROAD TO NSUKKA | RE-CREATION | GROUNDNUT | YOUTH | NEW DEMOCRACY | HEALING | MILLENNIUM SONG | WINGLESS TERMITES | EMPTY RITUAL | MIRAGE | OKADA | METAMORPHOSIS | TIMING | COUGH | DOGS AND THEIR WATER IN BROKEN POTS | BURDEN OF THE SONGBIRD | NIGHT FLIGHT TO LAGOS | RETRURING POLITICIANS | THE WATCHMAN | EARTH AND THE MADMAN

 

(for Mary)

Intact,
 
Parcel of honour,

Unpinched by the poke of men;

A vessel so clean

to catch the busy eyes of God

 

You guarded your lamp

Amidst thunderstorms of moral rot,

Setting a fight burning so high

above the mountains

For fellow mortals to see

 

But see... see...

Dogs are copulating here with dogs,

Gathering heaps of shit at your feet

Come...

Are you a refuse ground?

Or a truck pusher, or a truck driver?

Are you a night soil woman?

Are you hired to engage in this eternal

routine

Of sweeping the filth of men and

women?-

            the fight of men against their

 women;

the abortions by girls and married

women;

the theft of rulers, diplomats and

students;

the extortions of policemen and office

clerks;

the endless list of man's deliberate shit

           in the tendered gardens of the

living...

 

Dogs are here

shitting naked in our kitchen

and in their own pots

The shits remain for them

like for the dogs the water

in a broken earthen-pot.

 

 

 

Copy right by Ulonka and Ozioma Onuzuluike, 2002

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