Marijuana (Cannabis Sativa)
By Muhammad Saidy
Blessed youths
with great dreams
To make something meaningful in life.
Their ambitions could challenge mountain Everest
And their targets could addressed their societies
Glory could be upon them
Like rain on earth.
These dreams are killed by marijuana
Cannabis Sativa create a misconception
In your heart
And make you unawakened dreamer.
The materialisation of a dream
Do not come to does who sleep
But those who wake to chase it.
Cannabis Sativa will make you a dreamer
Making you dream of unachievable luxury
Simply it burn reality in you
Like it burn it’s filter.
MY SCHOOL BELL
_By Muhammed Saidy_
The bell rings and rings
It gets into my ears
Sounding of the bell is ting-tang-tong
Sometimes it sounds ‘‘keleen-keleen’’
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA
I love my school bell
I love it and I love hearing its sounding
My school bell alerts me of break times
I love my school bell
Because it tells me to get back to class
Ring rings
Ting-tong-tang
Ting-ting-tang-tang
Oh I hear it sounds again
Please ring it Mr. bell keeper
Is like the music I listen
Am happy when you ring that bell
I love it and I love its sounds
My school bell is like my teacher
It does not ring so noisy
It sounds so musically
It reminds me of getting into class
The sound of my school bell serve as a message to all
my school bell is like the sky blue
Ms Fofana: Such a fine figure
BY: MOMODOU S. JALLOW
With the cheating smiling face
That lied to me
About this young lad
Could death be so wicked?
These red lips
Sprouting rightly
Inform me of a sinless lad
That has all of the heaven’s gates opened
So the good angels shall welcome him
But this bright face he wore
Could be so misleading
It could hide lot of misery
That the mouth cannot utter
Death is so disheartening
WAG deafened by this news
WAG startled by this news
With the might of their pens
Cannot conjure their feelings
But to mourn in silence
Dear colleague
On your dead bed
Be aware
That oceanful of tears
Are shed
WAG has pledged
With all of our pens
Dipping them into their deep inky wells
Just to whisper to us
The final goodbye
Sleep so well dear colleague
PEARLS
By Michael Hamadi Secka
The total need to accumulate
Will your sense of being annihilate
You’ll end up being referred to as d late
Take it easy Pal, u can only enter one gate
The riches of material wealth are but a bait
You will therefore do well to it escape
Do not allow it to ur mind and soul rape
Cultivate moderation in all, ur mind shape
Luxurious life ‘ll throw on ur eyes a dark drape
This wide world is but a temporary escape!
A misguided definition of the term success
May ultimately lead u to commit a lot of excess
It’ll certainly give you no opportunity for recess
It’ll make u think with it to all things u’ve access
This’s what leads to many people having stress
Oh, that rapacious concept called greed
All the good qualities it seeks to from us weed
It’ll push u to always increase ur wants n need
Finally, it’ll make you take someone’s deed
It can do all this cus it ur ego massage n constantly feed
Seek protection therefore in contentment
This’s what’ll bring the heart’s deserved enlightenment
It’ll not matter whether u live in a mud house or of cement
Then don’t take notice of the recurrent n inevitable abandonment
Let live, love your life your way and seek your own version of fulfilment!
The Watchman
Sowe Gwriters:
Should I help the face of the moon
To shed tears of a fallen
Young lad?
Should I not write your silvery deeds on a golden plate?
To say that the illusion of death
Holds me bound
And life is a carcass of dreams
And a theatre of illusion.
A man needs must die
Why the tears in fears?
The screams in streams
Tell me death, how do I piece together
Fragments of these thoughts?
A stream of sorrow follows
Screams come in loud hollows
The ground slips beneath our poems
My wings dare to break
As my back bends in wake
But to pray for you we must
On this dammed Earth’s crust
Feeling my toes itch
Falling to a ditch
Saviour above reach
But to forgive
Heaven’s delight
Self, not to heal.
Beloved brother
Heart, pure as snow
Your tainted soul
Dwells in a heart of gold
May Allah forgive you, I pray.
I swear to God,
I only wish you feel what I felt.
If only you had,
You will knee where I knelt.
Remembering you is melting me,
Daily I melt.
I only mean to do what I meant.
But if prophets can die, tell me,
Why not you dear brother?
‘Kulli-Nafsin-Zallikatul-Mawt’,
‘Kaalu-Inna-Lillahi-Waa-Inna-Illaihi-Raojo-on’
*Modou Lamin Age-Almusaf Sowe*
Abdou Jatta_
BY: Muhammad Saidy:
Abdou Jatta you has gone
Gambia Writers cry
We could have not benefited from your benefits for so long
We wish to languish with you in fun.
Abdou when set my eyes on you
I know you will never deceive even a fool
Your smiles are tools to change the world
May goodness be on your soul.
What a loss to our nation
A man with perfect notion
A hero in midst
Shining brighter than a dish
Which each of us wish.
Abdou you are gone
But not forgotten
Living a legacy of comforting our souls
And in our prayers we shall call for your name.
I ouch us to take patient
In these moments that we are present
Know that the angel was sent
And our heart should be content.
If cries can bring you back
We will shed buckets of tears every time we walk
The Lord has degrees
But never our wish
May you rest in peace.
*_By Muhammed Saidy_*
THE ARRIVAL OF A RAINY SEASON
By: BAKARY J JANNEH
ALIA S POET GAMBIA
The cacophony
Of a sky dweller
Came down with
Tears droplets
=Reaching the
Ground then dank
As it already alarm
Farmers before arrival
=The sound of sowing machine
Create tumultuous
In the morning
signal-to-noise ratio that I detest
=Monsoon came
With perpetual toil
As they compete for
Bumper in autumn
=As “BABAS” of my village
Turn to face the east
“MBAA LU” turn to face west
All struggle to fill the store
=Children of alphabeta
Dine and wine in ‘pluie’
Carrying home pneumonia
When malaria is already present.
THE CHAIR
The chair that I hired
Seems to be of me tired
It is as if I am now retired
An endless attaya session I chaired
Since the advent of corona
I have been befriended by ‘barada’
All day long just sitting under a varendah
Dressed in my beautiful but torn ‘waramba’
Debating constantly the polls
Not only of Gambia but even of the Poles
The football aficionados talking about goals
While others n I dodge their convulsing soles
During this time discovered many a star
Most of these have never been into a bar
I hope the pandemic doesn’t our growth mar
And hope that it does not bring us another tsar
For this, let us say a prayer or two!!!
The Watchman
ORPHANED*
He sobs and shivered in the cold
The rain hit his head and caused more pain
His bare foot stuck in the mud
Like a quicksand where he wished he could drown
Mama is dead
Papa left for a war of life and never returned
With no place to lay his head
He weeps in fear while the rain hides his invisible tears
He fell asleep with a hope of life
A hope of waking up on mama’s lap
To see a wide smile on his papa’s face
A reassuring sensation from his siblings touch
Everyday that passed came with a new hope
To have the sun rise from his end
And the gunshots from his brothers to cease existence
With tattered rugs he sneaked down the path
Pushing dead bodies off the zone so his lane is smooth
He looked through the sleeping heads
For a sight of Mama’s bracelet
Amongst the massacred arms
He found his mother’s
A sight of his father’s old wooden boots lay afar
And there lay Papa’s limbs separated from his torso
Through the bloody slippery road
He took to his feet
The wail of his sister came from one corner
In front of him he watched his brother strip her naked
Got his “peos” out and injected it through her womanhood
The scream from her sister numbed his knee
Yet, he tip toed and crawl and walked then he ran away from the voices
He ran to save his lifeless life
He ran to not watch his heartless brother
Shoot a dagger through his sister’s dignity
So when she dies with no pride
His dream of better days would not die along with hers
Through the pain of war he fought
Eradication of poor bad leadership
Inhumanity of humans on human
Today we stand to scrap the wars we fought
Destruction of the dreams Martin Luther King had
The optimism of Kwame Nkuruma for total freedom in Africa
Don’t the words from Lumumba”s wish ring in our head?
Of having an Africa that will write its history of honor and dignity
Loyalty of the Africanist Thomas Sankara
The battles of Nelson Mandela
Don’t we look up to Jawara a man that wouldn’t hurt a fly?
And thus died with humbleness
Today we have a repetition of same old bad leadership
Our security men chopping us into meat pieces
Raping our sisters and tainting their purity with so much dirt
When we said Africa will rise above the west
We were talking about Kwame’s and Mandela’s Africa
When we said Africa will be in the history books of godliness
We were talking about the Arica that took a step away from
Corruption, killing of innocent men, extortion
Prejudice, embezzlement and injustice
When we said Africa will rise
We were talking about the Africa that took a step away from backwardness
*SOPHIA*
MANKAID
Oh judgment!
Mankind
Is the Centre of creation
Descendants
Of A dam and Eve
The Actor and Victim of Evil
Sycophant of Truth
The stubborn Relic
Who
Attempts to challenge
The Super Natural
Wellbeing of Nature
Through ignorance
The inventor of
Science and Technology
How far
Are we heading
From these
Horrendous Voyage of lesson
Catapulted
In World War 11
Mankind
In planet Earth
The commodity of God
An offspring from mud
The rival Neighbor of peace
Has life not
Been impatient with
Our cruel Altitudinal decay
The in human shelling
Of innocent souls
To Name but few?
PEACE
Thou!
Is the Natural reality of justice?
Destined
By God the Almighty
For Mankind Globally
Remember
Our discarded
Vessel of Planet Earth
Is wrecked at deep Sea
In the 21st Century
Torrential
Wave of Psychological genocide
Naked injustice
Hatred and cruelty
Is perishing our
Boarded Crews of Mankind
To reach a safe Anchor
Yeans on the tip of an iceberg?
Peace!
The invisible rival
Neighbor of Mankind
The hypotenuse of Equation
Against Mankind the Base
Thy
Boarded crews
As the Human race
Are at the mercy
Of High winds
Regarding
Terrorism and Disease
Climate change and
Environmental degradation
Coupled with Immorality
To Salvage our rescue
Has been hampered by
The inadequate flow of
The Global Cake
Among the boarded crews
In our Discarded
Would of vessel
Shall we anchor
In Good faith?
Peace!
Every segment of
The human race
Is concerned about thee
But None
Has yet been able to
Whisper about
Truth and Justice
Equality and Freedom
Ignorant of
The sordid Realty
That
These are inter-linkaged?
By Bamph SN Jaiteh
The Author
The Man
The Legend
Apartheid Their Aparthied
Destiny!
Mankind in our
Global habitat
Planet Earth
Desperate of Morality
The predator
Of His own Destiny
The Master of his Faith
The Perambulator in outer space
Hostage of COVID-19
Above all
The Gravitational force
In between Nature and prophet hood
Are we morally equipped
To catch
The Bull by its born
The New Millennium
Amid
Such persistent horrors of
Psychological genocide
And Universal injustice
Among the suffering
Masses of
Adam and Eve?