Martin Egblewogbe

God, looking at the world through a microscope
Sees man, looking back through a telescope
So are the small made large and the far brought near...

This is the first question:
Optical manipulation.

The Olde Satan, struck down in the original cosmic showdown
Re-emergent transmogrified by African Charismatics
Now appearing interminably in ancestral dreams and okro soup
requiring constant suppression in spiritual duels...

This is the second question:
Ethereal gunfights.

Man drifts in Religious Space
Wondering what is the meaning
Of Creation;
Wondering, wandering, stumbling:
Rebellion the sin of Satan
Disbelief the sin of Man
Both eternally disposed of in flame...

This is the third question:
Fire and Brimstone.

Now trapped within such delicate strangulating tendrils
Man within the web of society
Held behind bars of bigotry
Society against Man,
Willing the stake for those that seek escape:
Is it man for the law or the law for man...

This is the fourth question:
Who born dog?

But How We Must Hate Each Other
This is all a crisis of love
Is man an ape-man or an ape
White over black over black over white
The dog is a pet and the black man is an ape

And How We Hate Each Other
Our conversations are accentuated by carbines chattering
Ballot boxes and barrels of oil
Hard currency and harder drugs
Fists over knuckles descending in an endless dance of death

Oh We Hate Each Other
In this final crisis of humanity
Hidden knives flashing in smouldering anger
The prophet of god and the god of the prophet
The prophets of the gods and the gods of the prophets

But must these matters be resolved in blood

This is the fifth question:
What is the nature of hatred?

Each strophe bringing us closer to the soft underbelly of human civilization...

This is the sixth question:
To stab or to slash?

Martin Egblewogbe
Legon, Ghana.