Farm the Soil

My country people lets talk,

The earth hurts daily of boredom,

Those seasonal guests had deserted her soil,

No more trees and wheat, they had long-gone

Why cast out your fork and owes?

The ground longed for its hair to be combed,

Our clan is a friend of the soil not foes,

This land has fed us from the days of the old,

We are starved…

Our breaths are strained,

The fruits are scarce

Even when it just rained,

Our farmland is dry,

The stronger has gone to the town,

More commuters than food, lets try

Farming tagged to the commoners and clowns,

Garri refuses to swell,

The grains are scanty, O’ we grief

Only few for the market to sell,

Even when the earth is willing to give

Your parents are hungry and old,

Your kinsmen are starved still blind,

Your children are angry and cold,

When their fathers neglected farmland for the mines,

This land is fertile and fat,

The sky always there to uphold our course,

Go back to farming and make it fast,

The famine and tide is coming tough,

Brace your ego and farm the soil,

The earth is ready to accept our seeds,

Lets go to farm and leave the oil,

So our basket can come with better yield,

(Poem: “Farm the Soil” by Olorunleke Odubote)