Akwu Sunday Victor writes

I Live and Leave Nameless

Do you know what it takes to be
What I am not?
Do you know what it means
At the midpoint of my life
To chameleon off my identify
And wear the ones you offered?
I don't know why you look me in the eyes
And conclude that I am good for nothing
Yes, if not why raise your hands against me?
Why deny me the sunlight of peace of heart?
My heart have I given you. I gave it to you
Even when I know yours was not fully given me.
You hoarded your heart, but I yielded mine.
I took my father's name, squeezed it and flung
It away like a tattered garment and put on yours
Initially it was like a borrowed rope but stoically
I ran with the name until it stuck like my shadow
I stuck to you when you were a shadow
I cleaved to you when you had no name
Now you turn me into a rag for the world
To scrub filthy floors and now you look me
In the eyes as if I were a piece of rotten wood
You who was to shield me from the sun now lash
Me with heartless claws, why?
Do you know what I have sacrificed to be what I am not?
I should have been this, but I am that because of you.
The greenness of my flesh is faded
I have died a thousand times in the theatre
Just to bring to life that which will not bear my name.
I am a shadow, I live without a name, I die nameless
But why will you lift up your hands, your voice
Against I who hold your life in my kitchen pot?


Light and Shadow -- Moriguchi Mitsuru