Bottle Dance

BOTTLE DANCE Across my land, abysses gnaw at automobiles, From the foot of the mountain, To the shores of the oil fountain. Certificated youths drinking piss to mellow their brains, Clutching at wheels, dodging bumps into fog lights. “Stupid, ing dog” curse survivors of amputation “you bastard” “Who cares, you swine” retorts I the offender just before crashing into the next one. In my shack, counting my yields and sighing, evading the burning eyes of hungry breeds. How did I ever get here? In the ring stood I, surrounded by Foncha, Endeley, Jua and Ntumazah Um Nyobe sang the UPC song and they danced. They danced the bottle dance. Sandwiching in the center, on the slaughter slab, my motherland. Nigeria to the left, La Republique to the right, Trampling upon outright independence. Foncha danced and Endeley danced and Nyobe sang and Britain watched. The tune was clear, the rhythm was jazzed but the lyrics were blur; Whence had a nation’s independence, Been conditioned upon attachment to already independent states? So how did we ever get here? A loaf of bread baked in the flames of WWI And served into the plates of Imperial barons of foreign insanity Too blind to the tongues of oneness. Drawing a line far far away in the halls of mirror That tore grandmother’s breasts apart. The story of the Ewes of Togoland Was being whispered in her land while she slept. A line dragged across the highlands of the Adamawa and drained into the Atlantic, Sullied the virginity and orthography of kamerun. Grooming a set of dysfunctional twins through years of alien doctrines, Only to be reunited in an unholy matrimony called Cameroon or Cameroun. Testaments of tongues foreign like those on a devil’s Pentecost, That sowed seeds of immortal division. So this is how really I got here! A son deprived of the warmth of a Mother Drained of her milk, Tapped and shipped offshore. Scorned and oppressed by a brother, His name slowing fading away from the sands of time. And now, the land of bottle dancers clamour for a new dance: For I know how we got here and I too want to dance; Federation to the left, secession to the right, Trampling upon the pseudo 1972 re-unification. The blood of the brave pipe the tunes And rhythms of gunshots meet hallelujah, Sang in a coffin.