Silent Night (poem in memory of those murdered by Fulani herdsmen in Benue state)
By Henry Akuete


Into the cold blackness of the silent harmattan night
Echo the silent cries of dying children
Drawing first and last breaths from a loveless world
Torn from primordial uterine cocoons
The raw infants of Tiv women go into the silent night
Blood, fire and tears amidst the smoke of gun powder
usher away angry ghosts from the Benue valley
As angels empty bowls of vengeful prayers and tears
And the incense of burning skin and bone
Whither help, whither Love, whither God, whither man?
Whither Law and whither the blind widow of Justice?
For the Tiv is left alone to bury kin in dry sand
To eat the last morsel of flour before kindred fires
For tomorrow we see no more, for tomorrow we die
Fight or go quietly into the silent night?
This be the lonely question that echoes back
echoing loudly silent, back from the cold silent night.

© 2018 Henry Akuete