The night of 14-15 April 2014, a total 276 female students were kidnapped from a high school in Nigeria by Boko Haram. As of Sunday 14 April 2024, there are about 90 still in captivity, and possibly 30 of these might be dead. This poem is dedicated to the Chibok schoolgirls and all other victims of violent crimes across the world - you will never be forgotten!

THE CHIBOK SCHOOLGIRLS

Yellow jerry cans abandoned by the wayside.
Dirt roads, clay houses, another year of dust.
The world has forgotten its kidnapped girls.

Nothing remains of footprints in dried mud,
Except their contours in the mother’s heart.
Bring back our girls.

Everything the father eats tastes gray
And bitter as raw hate.
Bring back our girls.

Young sisters reach out in their sleep,
Only to wake in terror.
Bring back our girls.

Gaunt brothers go but come back empty-handed
From thorny shrubs and jagged rocks.
Bring back our girls.

The harmattan whips dry sand to a haze.
Hyenas laugh.
For the world has forgotten its girls.

AUTHOR: Janice D. Soderling, born in Evansville, Indiana, USA but now lives in Sweden.


SOURCE
https://naijaphilia.com/blog/2024/04/15/naija-poetry-78-the-chibok-schoolgirls/