In those days – <br /> <br />days I cannot ev’n recollect the year – <br /> <br />when things were alright and okay, <br /> <br />when death was sparily heard of; <br /> <br />when children were fed okay, <br /> <br />and kinsmen work’d for kinsmen <br /> <br />like ants working in a summer day, <br /> <br />fath’rs would send their childr’n to their kinsmen <br /> <br />living in a far away land – <br /> <br />they would go with their hand fill’d with bush meat; <br /> <br />on their way, they would play and play <br /> <br />till they were tired of playing; <br /> <br />then they would return to that place <br /> <br />where they had left their bush meat to play, <br /> <br />and they would find it there, untouch’d. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />In those days, <br /> <br />fath’rs would teach their childr’n so many tales; <br /> <br />childr’n would learn to farm; <br /> <br />they know their adds and minus, unhelp’d; <br /> <br />they were also train’d for war; <br /> <br />their gifts were skillfully fram’d by their Chineke. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />But now, when those fath’rs have gone, <br /> <br />we no long’r care for our tales; <br /> <br />childr’n respect no more their parents; <br /> <br />they no more do thing on their own, <br /> <br />for robots have taking the places of hands; <br /> <br />kinsmen refuse to work for kinsmen, <br /> <br />for greed and jealousy are now the ord’r of the day; <br /> <br />broth’rs steal broth’rs’ meat; <br /> <br />fath’rs no ev’n fit send their childr’n to school <br /> <br />for the whites have brought thiefilization, <br /> <br />and our traditions have fall’n apart.<br /><br />Eche Ononukwe<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/things-have-fall-n-apart/
