The Good Effect of War: Ohikhuare Isuku

No sane human would long for war. Its devastating effects far outweigh any meaningful achievement we can derive from it. But more often in time past, war has served as bedrocks for ravishing developments. It has driven serious innovations and established strong economic growth spread across time and space. The world wars brought their achievements, as well as many wars before them. So also the cold war.

The cold war was on one hand, between the United States, Europe, and the Western Bloc of Germany and on the other hand the Soviet Union and the eastern bloc of Germany. It wasn't a direct fight, and it lasted from 1947 to 1991 when the Berlin wall collapsed. This cold war in some ways laid foundation for man's first landing on the moon. 

On April 12th, 1961, Soviet's cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space when he orbited the earth in 89 minutes, He was aboard his space capsule, Vostok 1. To America, this advancement by the Soviet Union was a source of huge concern. Not only did it stab America's pride that its greatest rival had reached space first, it was worrisome then that the Soviet Union would soon begin to shift nuclear weapons into space. America was so enraged that President J.F. Kennedy banned Yuri Gagarin from visiting America after he became an instant celebrity following his return from space. 

In 1962, JFK founded NASA with a major aspiration to put man in space before the end of that decade. It was a greater challenge which would surpass the Soviet's achievement of putting the first man in space, and thereby bringing pride back to the United States in the face of the cold war. So in the unfolding years, America dedicated so much investment - human and capital - towards  achieving this aim. It worked towards the end of that decade.

On 20th July, 1969, Apollo 11 - The Eagle -  landed the first men on the moon surface. Neil Armstrong - the three-man crew commandant - was the first to land, declaring famously, "One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Nineteen minutes later, Lunar Module Pilot,  Buzz Aldrin stepped his foot on the moon becoming the second man in that regard. The third crew member, Micheal Collins, who was the Command Module Pilot, didn't land on the moon surface, rather he was hovering around the moon atmosphere. 

Through this, a giant leap was made by mankind, and it was because of the cold war. 

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Vexing Sky: A Poem by Miracle Folorunso

Humans, hear the silver stripes
roaming to and fro,
running round and loud,
touching earth’s barren lips!
Humans, hear our cry!

We take earth walkers
indoors to stay by fire side
telling tales, dreaming dreams;
we are the harvest that fill their banks

We are sweet
and we are insipid,
we give taste to fading meadows
and we are the workaday cottage,
we are the vexing rain

Both the moon and the sun
join us to whip humans
and as we strike
we join them in tears;
we burst out
letting go our tears

We are countless tears
which rip the road apart;
our tears swallow the
properties of many
yet humans ignore our cries

And what do humans do?
They strike us down with buckets
washing their dirt with our innocence
so that we cry the more

© Miracle Folorunso

[Edited by Chidinma Ahika]

About the Writer

Miracle Folorunso is a chip off the sun shining radiantly in the morning of her time. She is an S. S. 1 scholar of Eagles Educational Centre, Uselu Benin City. "Vexing Sky" is her first published work and she is saying a big thank you to her sister; Victoria, big brother, and teachers Mr. Ahika and Mr. Ibe who helped her discover her talent at the dawn of her years. At the present time, she is working on an anthology that centres on the ecology that keeps us alive.

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River Niger: Poem by Gift Miracle Ogbole

Beloved River Niger,
colourless and pure,
as wide as the desert sand,
when the wind blows,
you fold into waves like ploughed ridges

When the sun
paints your wet bosom
with his golden straws
you are as pretty
as a blind man's sight

True, the stars
are watching, lending
their lights while your limbs sleep walk
through and through the silent nights

You give life too
to mammals, to reptiles,
to the first of times,
to the time we see
and to the times that will be

© Ogbole Miracle Gift

[As edited by Chidinma Ahika]

About the Writer

Ogbole Miracle is a young steward of the pen. She is currently a J.S.S 2 student of Eagles Educational Centre, Uselu, Benin City. She is a poet and playwright. And she is working on the manuscript of her play titled "Making Hay."

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I Think I'm a Ghost: Poem by Ohikhuare Isuku

I think I am a ghost;
my disposition, the whole of my being
churns up this claim
like an earth troubled by a plow,

For alone in the void,
attended by birds’ chirps and plants’ rustlings,
I mine greater warmth in my company
than in a gathering of laughter,
of warmth and brotherhood.

Discordant sounds wear me out
like an eroded earth;
even the ticking of my footsteps
turns rapture from my holding.

And when injustice thrusts out
its hideous fist like a volcano,
It’s a heavy pang I feel on my chest
like a blacksmith’s blow,
because like ghosts,
I idealize a utopian world.

Thus, if this claim
of me being a ghost
survives truth’s stringent test,
then there are more ghosts on our streets
who are oblivious of their state.

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Oppression is a Chain Reaction: Ohikhuare Isuku

In developing countries like Nigeria, oppression is increasingly becoming a systematic menace which is proving quite difficult to curb. Sadly, we are all proponents of this darkening cloud rising above us like a plague. If you are quick to deny this accusation, then think of the hideous treatments you often melt on the helpless environment around you; for example, the strewing of non-biodegradable polythene and plastic wastes on marketplaces, highways and public squares; the defacing of the surroundings with religious, business and political posters, as well as the rife torturing of rivers and oceans with deleterious substances which prove more than dangerous to aquatic lives. 

Unfortunately, the list of heinous oppressive actions  are not exhausted. However, it is important to note that oppression has become almost a national proclivity; or legalized, so to speak. Consequentially, the acerbic catastrophe of its aftermath has formed into a chain reaction, or rather a cycle of painful blows and enslavement, more or less. 

Take for instance, a poor man, having no money to purchase a proper waste bin, wakes up in the morning to dump plastic wastes into the lagoon beside his ramshackle abode before going to work to meet an abusive boss who sees nothing in withholding his salary for months. Subsequently, because of the accumulation of wastes on the lagoon and by extension the surrounding sea, there is an upsurge of flood which destroys the boss' beach home. The boss repairs his home with the capital of the business where he employs the poor man; and then the cycle of oppression begins again.

In conclusion, it seems that oppression, as it rises across the chain, spews consequences which are deadlier. Importantly, to put an end to an oppressive system, we have to first define what oppression really means in the simplest term, and then make necessary steps to exterminate its sources completely. 

Ohikhuare Isuku.

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C++, My Own Game of Chess

       

       I discovered C++ not too long ago, and it is fast becoming an integral part of my life; my own Game of Chess, I would say. But I have one regret, and it is that I discovered this brain-tasking engagement very late in my life. I am in my twenties though, but I still feel intense remorse that I should have been introduced to it early enough, maybe when I was ten.

While growing up, we had no Chess in our house. We lived in a peaceful countryside where nature governed - blossoming trees in June, charred grasses in December, black and white birds twittering among trees' branches, large red-earth streets and compound where we fell upon and bathed ourselves with dry sands during beautiful moonnights. In those days, we had a few brain-tasking games at our disposal. Ludo was one of them. But "Ayoo" was by far the most influential because we could easily construct it on the dry earth under the mango tree in front our compound. It had two rows of six holes each facing themselves, and each hole had four smooth oval pebbles. And to win these two games, you had to be a fast-thinking person. Just like it is with Chess, as I'd later find out.

I discovered Chess and Scramble far too late, and so I avoided them like plagues. I still avoid them, although I often dream of playing.

Recently, in my self-inflicted solitude, I have discovered C++ language. It is not a game like Ludo, Chess and Scramble, but I have viewed it as such, and I play it to silence the ticking of the clock in my mind. For those of you who know C++, it is a programming language which can stretch your brain to the zennith or sometimes nadir. Well, I find that "stretching" enticing. The overall feeling of this brain-tasking endeavor is like the sweet taste you get in the end after chewing a bitterleaf or kolanut.

Now I set real life problems for myself and stare deeply into my computer for hours trying to get solutions to the puzzle I have set for myself. Most times I fail and feel sad. But when I get any correct, I feel a soaring upliftment in my soul.

E. Isuku.

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The Truest Happiness: Poem by Ohikhuare Isuku.

If you see a child on the terrace,
or rolling upon the dry earth - 
grains of sand stuck on his bare skin - 
do not stop his play
because you feel he's done enough,

He's having the best time of his life!

Do allow him dream;
allow him purchase planes and ships
with bundles of dry leaves
he flaunts as his naira and dollar banknotes;
let him talk about
building several castles on the Atlantic 
or in space or mars.

For it is during childhood
when one plays without a burden at heart,
or dreams without knowing
the cost of achieving dreams,
that one has the truest happiness. 

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