The adult of this land
The youth
Greetings . . .
My soul sinks deep down the dawn of culture
The inestimable culture of this land and
I see beauties and glamour
Which now are of value no more
Perverted these days by the youth
Our pride is now shame and
The shame is now our pride
For the accursed knowledge of civilization
That we now embrace
We turn beauty for ashes
And also ashes for beauty
We are sick and sleep
This is a knotty issue
No oracle would talk
Without speaking of sacrifice
No divination will would speak without appeasement
If the priest – the conscience of the nation
Is not equally well . . .
Everyone is left in the dark without direction
Now to you – our fathers,
You witnessed the dawn of our land and
Washed in our river of beauty, yet
Our beauty is cast into the mud while you watch
Our tongue is sold for money
A strange tongue to our detriment
Our culture is going to extinction
The children take rag for garments
Nudity for dignity, waywardness for normalcy
Their genitals are open in the street
Their pride they hide
Their shame they expose and
They pride in pregnancy without husband
This is not our culture
This is not our nature
Black is beautiful, tell them
Tell them
We have values in the colour they now defy
And language they now decry
Tell them
We must return to our birth
Our dawn of honour, our ancient path
Lest we sleep the sleep of trouble
And our posterity accursed our laxity
And we bite our fingers when we see our error
In the world of darkness beyond
Olatubosun David is a Nigeria writer and poet. A graduate of Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, Ondo State (2013), in Office Technology and Management. Currently works as a confidential secretary in the department of Mathematical Sciences, Achievers University, Owo. Ondo-State, Nigeria.