Poem: Mother Tongue

It is amazing how unique every language sounds

From the easy to speak to the difficult to pronounce

Languages are one of God’s masterpieces

Sounding on lips like Angels Kisses

The melodies of Francophone

The harmonies Anglophone

Speaks louder than the microphone

Goes farther than the telephone

We worship everything coming from Overseas

Now we are one of those, Mr. Oyibo oversees

His white presence still lingers in our Lingua franca

A thousand words cannot express these any franker

What is as bad as being lost in your own home?

With your identity buried in another’s tomb?

It is our responsibility to watch over our personality

We are the custodians of our posterity

What will we pass over to our offspring?

Burgers, Pizzas, and Ice cream? I Scream!

Whatever happened to our Ekpang Nkukwo, our Efere Afang

Perhaps they got lost in the big bang

What will we call our children unborn?

While it is, cool to name your son, ‘James Bond’

It will be nice to call her Ada, Call him Emeka

After all we not from England or America

I am African My language is my bride

I pride in her smile so wide and her dish not fried

My language is not just words

It is the nut contained in expression pods

My language is an attitude

It differentiates me in the multitude

My language is more than just air from the lungs

It will not be wrong

To say am blessed to have a Mother Tongue

By Bentem Joseph