₦airaland Forum

The Convict ( V) (Rhyme)

Intrusion on silence's speech
Ushered in by a black van's screech.
A wigged man in his spectacle
Sits in tentacles of fates and miracles

And bystanders troops in and out
Some either chants, sings or shouts.
An old man braced himself at the dock
Vehemently clinging to the tinge of luck

Gallery of evidence and exhibit were displayed
At the gleeful eyes of the persecutors and the dismayed
The judge have seen and heard it all
To give his sentence and leave the hall

"Death by the rope" he declared with the gavel
On a sound block just before it clocked eleven
Though, he knew his judgement has no laxity
To determine his professional sanity

The Convict (IV) [Ballad]

Didactic old man
Fiddling with fright
As tears curled down
From a bemoaned and fretted face
To his foaming lip.
The tears thirst bitter taste
Spiced with desired regret
Of an action already finished,
Crime begets an accidental skirmish.

~
His hands,
Those quivering hands
Protective to a fault.
The palpitation; his heart
The ‘eye of his soul’
Full of surprises and confusion,
His heart and head
Were at war with intent,
One seem to agree less
Which is it?
~
His old bat given as
A gift to his nipper
Now lays dirty as a witness
In the gore colours of crime,
Glittering red instead of white
As day time
Further dim its light
It would be called that such
Was the gift, no, tool of death.

~
A van with siren screeched to a still
From a distance that only time covers.
Few men clad in black disembarks
With live weapon of coercion,
Their face sternly professional,
The cacophony from the siren
Mocks the victim -
The dead one, the twiddling one
And the old man – which ever it chooses
A new home seems near.

~
Cuffed with cheap silver bracelet
And dragged out from the house
To the crying van,
He took a wild look aback
His blood has turned his heart to a scar,
The one that will forever illuminate
Him, it will shine exclusively
In this midst of his darkness
Where love loves hate;
What a betrayal of doctrine!

~
They led him inside the van
After few steps on heavy feet,
He was whisked off the city -
His heart too was heavy
Heavy with thoughtless thought
Enmeshed in what he dreaded
And what he has always fought.
He put his old head out of the window
And breathe his last fresh air
While the wind stranded his gray hairs.

~
Hours followed closely in minutes
Like eternity;
Till time raptured
At a very big iron gate,
Where no one ever forgets its date
Of arrival – departure is the uncle of death
It comes when one less expects
Days,
Months, and
Years if lucky.

The Convict (Part II) [Free verse]

Many months ago, a man from Middleton moved to,
A province of vices and soured delinquencies
Where dreams remain dreams
And reality seems unnatural
Like angels and demons in a guileful romance

Few months ago, a young enforcer was stationed
At the city of madness where reason has no reason
To be a reason, the city stood on a wild-wind bedlam!
Moans, groans and squeals were bedtime songs
That cradles everyone to sleep

The man from Middleton, my dad, a conformist preacher
A norm embedding parson passing creeds
From his forefathers to me, the enforcer, his seed -
He is the pioneer of my creation
An astute fellow to the bone
I live his air and breath his life
Just like him, I'm never pliant
Wrong is wrong and right is right
'No matter whose ox is gored'
That I've learnt, I've mastered and revered
*********************

One daring day, amid vast numbers of outlaws
A dare-devil hooped into the enforcer's bay
His face was masked with effronteries of crime
And calmly, he strolled to a safe like he owns it -
An enforcer skirmishes him halfway to the safe-room
But was overpowered and subdued with a deadly choke
And within the barriers of life and death
The man from Middleton who seeks the well being
Of his son; the son staring and clinging to deaths' strings
He man took a baseball bat and hit his head
And when the outlaw charged,
He hit him with a blow on the chest
And the outlaws' soul flee the earth
But he did something extraordinary'
He repeatedly clubbed his remains to mutilation

"Father, you just killed a man"
****************

I've sworn to you to solemnly uphold
Your sacred transferals in me as my ethical fealty
In which laws aren't dared but held in esteem,
My call to the Force was like that of a messiah
You knew that just like I too - very well;
"For if there was a crime, damn all involved and
Make the call asap" these were your words -
Your norm, my belief, a practical now -
When guilt smolders his old face
I grabbed the phone and thumbed 911...

The Convict (Part II) [Quatrain]

The prepared necklace of doom, damnation and death
Hung around me; ready to swing me quivering to a painful sleep -
With a priest beside me, my sins were as it were from birth;
Few transgressions I admitted but just one I've decided to keep

The priest's holy water made my soul to steep - but was mild
As he moves aside and signaled for my condemnation
My heart ponders to my dream of playing with my grandchild
Telling tales of my ancestor's taboos, trials and tribulations...

Alas i was unmasked and my assassins took off my trinket of crime
And was garbed in the reality of that which i once dreaded - fear.
It was a sign that the light had lost its sparkling flare this time
I wondered, as the stench scent of death oozes near

A chair was there under my feet, and beneath, a hole below
Me, I fixed my sullen gaze on my happy killer as he positioned
Himself; his face, the last I'd see as today ends my tomorrow
Its a pity his crime was the one i failed to mention

The Convict (Choka)

Life behind these bars
My recidivistic chained lounge;
I bonded with loneliness
At will - my frial wrist
Scarred by the bangle of guilt -
Chaste from birth but now guilty

"Death by the rope" - is
My price for dis-innocence
I embraced it well like wraith
Of though fear might flee
Justice will kill me tonight
And I'll whiff peace through my death

Bang!!! Off goes the bong
The call for my head I think;
Broody pangs aches me aloud
As the crowd barracks,
Sully smile stained their faces...
Spits, sticks, sands and stones were thrown

Inside the foyer -
My doers came with blindfolds -
Glow of darkness beholds me,
Farewell my best friends;
Crickets, flies and mosquitoes
I'd hear chirps and buzz no more

I'd be dead real soon
But no one knows my reason
For crime - no one ever cares!
Now, freedom will walk
To criminal's tomb for peace
Just for my son's sake

Defending my blood
was all I did - just a blow
On the chest and death took him...
For this single sake
I'll die so that I can live
The gallow awaits my scrag

In life we are faced the option of standing for what is just or not, how we go about it also puts us in dilemma.
The average human often have the thought to change the world when faced with glaring and daring situations but what happens when the world changes you?

In this piece, I intend to tell a story using poems and its different forms while exploring the theme/topic to reflect the actual cause.
I was encouraged to write this by firestar and IfyChuky after when I wrote one piece and they demanded for another.

So here I go again. The earlier thread was lost in the Nairaland tsunami but thanks to my Seun, Princesa, etalker, TemitopeDaniel, prettyspicey and other good friends for helping me get it back and sticking with me. Thanks a million.