Muttallab my brother
Muttallab my brother,
I believe I can call you that
Though you are now a global outcast
Rejected by family, religion, race, and earth inhabitants
I call you brother, though you didn’t win an orange,
Booker or noble peace prize
Instead you failed to detonate a liquid bomb
In your underpants
Saving your life and hundreds others
Muttallab my brother,
I believe I can call you that
Though the memories of the Biafran war,
Incessant religious killing in the north
With our mother’s children always the victim,
Threatens to tear the fabric of our society.
Muttallab my brother
Though the world will question my integrity
for calling you a brother at a time as this,
But i have always loved the rejected and condemned,
i never forget to remember the forgotten
Like ironsi, ifeajunna, and nzeogwu,
And have made many enemies of men my friend,
Che Guevara, Stephen Biko, Saro Wiwa, even Lucifer
Because my love questions none’s race,
religion or political agenda
but the height of your sacrifice
what you denied yourself for the sake of others
Muttallab my brother,
who are you truly,
Nigerian or yemenian?
Tribal provocations and religious riots
Gives us opportunity for shallow mass graves
But we are peace lovers,
And Thousands of our children die in the nations of others
Promoting peace in their lands
from Darfur, Freetown to Monrovia
Muttallab my brother, even though I call you brother
I condemn the killing of innocents
I condemn every act of war, or terrorism
I condemn religious crisis or killing in the name of Allah or Jehovah
your conscience now carry the weight
Of the condemnation of your
150 million half brothers
Whom you never considered
as you set out on your vengeful mission
[...] Read more
poem by Cookie Iwuoha
Added by Poetry Lover
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