by Chris Anyokwu
A tango of serpents makes the hedge; venom resistant to antidotes. Mortal ignorance brags riding roughshod over the law’s fragile skeins into sweet nirvana.
But you cannot break the law,the law will break you!
They sit in busy covens to concoct brew to disorientate the land, dragging all to the witness stand to testify healing potencies of the broth:
You cannot break the law; the law will break you!
Throw in stones for bread and scorpion tails for meat for famished children waiting at the table. And serve them gall as after-meal water:
You cannot break the law; the law will break you!
They storm celestial vestry to steal God’s sceptre and excel at impersonation. Where the pachyderms step, grass wilts,turns manure for renewal. Oh, they play God lynching the earth, scarcely caring:
You cannot break the law; the law will break you!
Time’s a sad record of singed ears who never pay heed to this cardinal rule. Yet they delude themselves to outwit nature’s inviolate marker.
Happy,then, are all who do nature’s bidding to littlest tittle. The rain comes in her due season, and the sun rides supreme in the sky. Their pots and pans overflow and their hearth is full of song of bright flames when the world is all night.
Chris Anyokwu, is a Professor in the department of English, Faculty of Arts, University of Lagos.
