Poetry—Ijir Martin

Ijir Martin is a social entrepreneur, teacher, poet and activist. He is the author of Jeremiad: Sepulchral Energies. Winner of 2020 Arc Prose-Poetry Prize, Iraq and finalist of Sentiere diVersi Poetry Prize twice, Italy. His works can be found at ANA Review, Afrocritik, Rock Pebble, Ahazar, LangLit Peer Review Journal and elsewhere. He lives at Karu, Nigeria. 

1. Poverty 

And the scalpel in the butts 

Of my mind fielded stimulus responses 

Like children on a playground 

Their long silence dishes the ground 

As the grasses lay death 

My regurgitating breathe 

Knocked through my arteries 

Life plug wire turn off 

And the  belching oozes 

Like a tap in endless flow 

The face of the economy flares 

Like hype of gases, 

And the money power fails 

To purchase a commodity 

What the name of the money 

 

2. Politeness on their face 

If politeness reigned as purple mint 

The vagueness in a year is as a leaf 

The appealing voices of a soul 

Knocked in the ashtray as stub 

Of ashes from cigarettes 

The briers piled up the wood 

And the cemetery ask 

Whose turn it is 

Politeness screams as a politician 

In a rogue stylistic display of self 

In mild tenor gossamer garment 

Those that cemented the spirit 

Of their deceit politicking 

In abject gown they leave voters face 

As they marshalled with neo-lit-phrases 

Like pensioners seen self in active service

The three jerky efforts of life - defined 

Clean-shaven, depressed and earnest faced 

All entwined as an equality of rush-revolution 

Thinking with ashes all would solidifies self to the cause 

(c) Martin Ijir 2022