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Uche Ogbuji
Road from Calabar to Abuja
Shot out through the newly-set stelae
Welcoming to Calabar, we plunge into
Lucent green: chlorophyll to brimming,
Pale blue vessel clapped over our heads,
Illumined to reflect forth in the chipped, black strip of road;
Jagged mounds astride the shoulder teem with ants.
Into the gentle basins of the delta bread basket—
Sour sop lollipop land. Akamkpa now Ikom and
Combs of coconut with wavy leaves of plantain,
Fan leaves of cocoyam, and hardwoods strutting the sky.
Mounds astride the shoulder are muscular yam
Winding into razor plots of pineapple.
Past Ogoja into Benue, grass reaching to pull down
Tree tops—brown streaked green
Of banana stands under these bowed crowns
Mounds astride the shoulder are cassava spreads.
Round cement huts topped with thatch
Bon-boy bobbing heads mark paneless windows.
Gboko to Makurdi, trees step lightly over
Rioting grass. Dust motes laze gnat-like in still air.
Mounds astride the shoulder are stock of citrus vendors,
Suspiciously, for December, occasional usurp of mangoes.
Orange orchards march out from the red canvas
Against whites and purples of thick sugarcane.
Copper, rust, straw of new construction—
Mounds astride the shoulder are sterile brick heaps,
Savannah grain stacks drying, cleared bush
Over the Benue, grey waters bitten by
Brown sand bars (Cameroon courtesy in silt),
White cows kicking up brown clods and dust spray.
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