Macpherson C.O. Okpara
(A Nigerian Poet)
Senior Lecturer
Department of English
Ebonyi State College of Education
Ikwo, Abakaliki, Nigeria
2019. you showed your ugly face in Wuhan
we saw you as another common virus
whose antics we knew how to stifle
with vaccines or tested herbs
with libations to the gods
with beads or chaplets
voices hitting the sky
the home of the One
2020. you morphed into a mad dragon
terrific, bold and belching fearful flames
your wings circle the world like a bird of prey
your breathing sprays the air with droplets of death
in days, thousands of souls drop and turn food for worms
your stench drowns the dreams of many in pools of sorrow
your fangs and talons and bowels fill up with human blood!
not done, you recoil like a serpent and strike again and again
daily you send more flames to lick more lives in more cities
mindless of scores of skulls already in graves and morgues
of thousands quarantined and others in isolation centers
their laborious lungs perfume the air with your kind
sending wisps of greater fear and bitter teardrops
to their loved ones and the human race!
COVID-19, pregnant global terrorist
the more the nations weep
the more your ugly smile
the world lies locked
humans cry in cages
animals roam cities
recession greets
the wide globe
hunger hides
in homes
killing faster than your viral army!
you that reap from wreckage of lives
your puffed feathers and proud head
shall soon be tamed and clipped off
your deeds kept in books of the past!