This land I see,
Pristine and unsoiled,
Unpolluted and unharmed,
The air clean and fresh,
No harmful substance floats around,
The land is rid of sickness and diseases,
Epidemic is not an envisaged guest,
No specie is at the brink of extinction,
The land is not at the verge of
been swept clean of its nature
and resources,
The people are happy and unterrified,
Arms and arms men do not lurk the streets,
Danger does not hide in the night,
This is a place I want to forever be,
This is an ambience I want to forever embrace,
But I see something,
Something in my homeland,
Something prevalent in the land
I come from,
The dominance of a class,
A group of people holding sway,
They sit at the seat of authority,
Dictating the tune,
And the flow of rhythm,
Others just dance to this,
Why has this monster come to this land?
Why have they open their doors to it?
I thought I have come to a
celestial city,
A home where all stand on equal footing,
Then where is that city around?
As I ponder on this,
Sad and dejected,
I wake up,
I hear a voice,
Only up here
can you find that city.
Thompson I. Emate is a graduate of the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. His keen interest in creative writing particularly prose and poetry have seen him spend most of his leisure time writing these two. He has his poems, “Foot Soldier” and “Lilies” published in a youth magazine. He lives in Lagos, Nigeria.