THE NEW FACE OF FUEL SUBSIDY

Face --
Definition:
Outward appearance;
Bridled intro to the seat of thinking.

The wheel is spinning
The steering is turning
Without a driver

The yoke is steering
In an unpiloted cockpit.

The rudder adapts to navigation
In an uncaptained ship.

Events emerge,
Seemingly quagmiric.
Yet we know that the noise reeling out
Over cartons qued up for PMS on bumpy roads
Is a new face of subsidy.

Many routes to the bad man's doormouth,
One route to God and love.

Bad men have dressed policies of pain in purple robes,
Sprayed red inks of being on tarmac,
Let fall an old order.

The new befriends the chameleon;
I dare to scream beyond silhouetted promise lands.
The new face of subsidy.

(II)
We have come a long way, they tell us.
We, the commuters on Ada George Road, Ikwerre Road and so on.

We who on rainy evenings
Walk on road puddles
Pay heavy fares to sit
In buses where humans are sandwiched.

We who trek distances when four cars intersect at a terminus of mud and soot,
And one of the drivers bawling at the other,
"ARE YOU MAD? DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?"
Then the other retorting with sarcasm,
"Of course I know who you are."
Ludicrous silence.
Subserviently yet poignantly the last speaker continues,
"Are you not the Governor of Rivers State? Your Excellency, Sir. . ."

[ONIS SAMPSON. This is just a part of the poem. The remaining part will be added later.]