Civilian and Soldier By: Wole Soyinka

My apparition rose from the fall of lead,
Declared, 'I am a civilian.' It only served
To aggravate your fright. For how could I
Have risen, a being of this world, in that hour
Of impartial death! And I thought also: nor is
Your quarrel of this world.

You stood still
For both eternities, and oh I heard the lesson
Of your traing sessions, cautioning -
Scorch earth behind you, do not leave
A dubious neutral to the rear. Reiteration
Of my civilian quandary, burrowing earth
From the lead festival of your more eager friends
Worked the worse on your confusion, and when
You brought the gun to bear on me, and death
Twitched me gently in the eye, your plight
And all of you came clear to me.

I hope some day
Intent upon my trade of living, to be checked
In stride by your apparition in a trench,
Signalling, I am a soldier. No hesitation then
But I shall shoot you clean and fair
With meat and bread, a gourd of wine
A bunch of breasts from either arm, and that
Lone question - do you friend, even now, know
What it is all about?

Artwork: Von Thunen's Agricultural Zonation Model

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Painful letters By: Marvee

Every time I feel this way This terrifying kind of pain These twitchy palms and muffled sobs These weakened sights and mindless slob I would think of something To put me at ease, anything At times, to leave my world And be someone else, not a dud Often times I would write on plain sheet Write till my limbs felt weak Write till the page is covered in ink Write till the painful times shift. ©-Marvee

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_The so called queen of the zanger A woman of misery and deceptive appearance Wags tongue in a swordlike How angelic she be when seeking the honey frm it's comb With her romantic but deceitful display The first sight of her left me in dismay First encounter with her was heartrending Such a sweet poison A devil in disguise wit an angelic face The so called queen can neither be embraced nor avoided.

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Every year we welcome into our community several teenagers between 13 and 17 from far and near. They are both male and female. They have the same mission. They have come to write General Certificate Examination (G.C.E). Most of them are penultimate students in secondary schools. These little fellows have been fixed at centres nearby to write their exams and the people that brought them have accommodation as part of the payment agreement. Some of these children are leaving home for the first time. Some of them look like mom's pets. Immediately they hit the town, you see a lot of ambiance and noise, something like a carnival. They make noise in the morning while looking for water for domestic use and in the evening when they are back from their different centres. It's always a new experience for most of them, and they seem to enjoy it: yea, they seem to enjoy being away from home for a whole month, a kind of escape from the eagle eyes of their parents; they seem to enjoy a t...

OLUWAJIMI . J . THORPE

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