PRAY FOR JOS

PRAY FOR JOS

I care less if they are pink, black or blue
Aren’t they human just like me and you?
I woke today to terrible news
Jos in turmoil, was a caption on the news
They blamed the bloodshed on sectarian views
So I ask, who is this one they call sectarian views?
He sounds like someone pretty new.
Last night I looked up the words sectarian views
They made reference to people of differing views
Sorry, there’s no man by the name sectarian views
Forgive my show of ignorance in plain view.


God forbid violence become your tomorrow too
Because another’s violence might visit you too
For if another visits violence on you,
You’ll find you crying out and struggling too
Out there in Jos, it’s all doom and gloom
They are hacking down others like in a surreal cartoon
Violence sweeps across the land in quakes and shakes
Shame on you for walking in death’s wake
While spawning monsters of different types and make.


Thanks to you I leave my home today in haste
Thanks to you I tremble at an uncertain fate
At the blade of your knife I’ll meet my demise
But why my brother must I pay this price?
Aren’t you that guy with a smile so nice?
Aren’t you the one with whom I shared my rice
Without even asking that you pay a price
Yet you haunt me day and night
Insisting I pay an ultimate price
For things I neither found nice
Nor in them did I pride.


In your fit of madness I won’t partake
You came to my house wielding a machete this late
At you I laugh and look on with distaste
Here I am, do take my life away in hate
After you visit upon me this tragic fate,
At the Lord’s Table I’ll go sit behind my plate.
But you my brother filled with hate
Your judgment comes soon, oh! just you wait.
You took away my life in your haste
On that day the Lord you’ll fail placate


Oh dear lord, who are these rampaging monsters?
These surely can’t be my brothers and sisters.
Under that tree lies Dayo’s head
On top of that fence they made Uche a bed
In that stream lies my teacher Ed
Obi lies bleeding in that flower bed


Oh dear Lord didn’t you all of us create
Why then do they delight in so much hate?
These churches and mosques they do violate
For various reasons I cannot relate
In spite of all these I do not hate
I pray commonsense someone does translate
And bring to an end this festering hate.
I pray you brothers, do remember Jos
I pray you my brothers, do pray for Jos


FOOTNOTE
When the camera crews go away, we all tend to forget. When the news no longer goes that way, we all just might never remember them again. Ulonna, thanks posting something on Jos a few days back. You prompted to write this piece and react. Hope you find this useful enough, cuz I wrote this to remind myself and my friends of Jos. God bless.