ABIKU UNCHAINED.

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Famous writers had written poems on Abiku, you can check them out here:

John Pepper Clark - Abiku

Woke Soyinka - Abiku

Below is my version, I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

There is a nursing mother,
And I'm going to tell you about her.
Down the hill her shelter you'll find,
Built with wood, and raffia Palm.
For a living, on yam she farms.

One day came famine upon the land,
The seeds when planted, never sprout.
The animals in the field, fell sick and died.
She fed on products gotten from her farm,
Until no yam was left in her barn.

Her baby would cry, all day and night.
Despite the tricks played by her mother,
The baby still is unsatisfied.
She needed some food in her mouth,
But this her mother could never find.

I can't contain the pain upon this land,
I'll travel to a place better that is afar.
Alone, all alone
The nursing mother would speak to herself all the time.

The neighboring village now has food in their land,
Like wildfire, the news travelled through the town.
Everyone geared up, traveling to fill their store house.
Hastily, steadily, they mount on their saddle ride.

Every heart was filled with joy on return,
Their separate ways they went,
To meet their loved ones in a rush.

This nursing mother on getting to her hut,
First reach her fire side to warm her pot,
She sang a joyful song all along,
Little she knew, to her what fate has brought.

She went to meet her baby by her cradle bed,
Laying lifeless, she met her dead
She jumped up and on the ground she hit herself,
My baby was alive when I left she said.

She ran to the street,
Which now is her only place of rest,
And although the air of life she breathes,
I would have been better of dead she wished.

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