Life Above Death

Play it back, show me those moments lost;
Not of the darkest losses or those scornful years;
In this silent yard where some fleshes has been to dust;
Some alive has gone buried in fear;

Life is to live, only for a brief; 
Wantonly full for those liberal with wit,
Dust thou art, when thou returnest don’t grief,
Hence a sunset at the wooden box in the pit;

Many times in slumber, asleep like a lost soul,
But thou In eternal slumber, six feet away in the unfathomable realm;
Bounded by brotherhood; now severed at the crossroad,
As the soil upheaved we wailed in whelm;

Life is but an empty space adrift;
Though voided with shouts and untimely climaxes;
The air, The flesh; is just another makeshift;
While on this side; I plead take all the fantasies;

If thou could, wholeheartedly stay burnt in the sun,
Fly the clouds like the birds in summer,
Both the sunrise and set would be thy rhythm and song,
Though the end knocks - life is just as normal.

Life is like a tickling that drops with tides;
For this my kinsmen, on bended knee I smile and mourn;
Thou never tarried to traverse the other side,
Like the fallen tree in the fall; I saw thee gone.

My clansman; so divine thou art;
Thine lifetime is a lesson for mortal while at ease;
Tomorrow is by chance, stand now and graciously act,
Make today the best as you please.

See the need, take the lead;
Make some tales after thy earthly name;
Death will come, Do a creed, make no plead;
While still living; make some fame;

(“Life above Death” dramatizes the conflict between life and death; written in honor of Moses Kadeer Itsuokor, 2004 JCI Nigeria President, the author of “See the Need, take the Lead” who died recently)

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Leke Odubote, “Life above Death”, copyright 2018