We Are No Longer Children
John Ojonugwa Attah

We are no longer children,
That is the boastful talk we always carry about.
We are no longer children,
Yet, we are strapped behind the backs of our supposed mothers.
 
We are no more children,
We still wait on those who gifted us whips,
Those who did not stop till they made us skeletons,
Those who bit underneath our feet and fanned it all at once like rats.
 
We say we are no longer children,
Yet, we seek the sagging breasts of our mothers,
Those who nursed us for a long time,
And yet we cut the ropes that tied us together.
 
We are no longer children,
Yet we still seek the words that calm us,
The words that bear no meaning,
That have led us nowhere near the end of this tunnel.
 
We are no longer children,
Yet, the land rejects our claim.
We are the remnants of this debris of history,
We are probably still children.

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John Ojonugwa Attah writes poetry, short stories, football reviews, composes text messages and songs, and teaches English and Literature. His works have been published in Dreams at Dawn (An Anthology of short stories from the International Creative Writing Workshop series organized by Fidelity Bank Plc), The Muse Journal, Carcinogenic Poetry, Languature Magazine, Babishai Niwe Poetry Award (Uganda), Saturday Sun Newspaper (Nigeria), Drumtide Magazine (USA), FaithWriters, Poetry Poem and other magazines and webzines. He blogs at: www.attahojonugwajohn.wordpress.com.