Lagos

Lagos drags herself to work

She wakes and she burns

Sleep-drunk her belly churns

With footfalls on her tired back

Fumes rage from cars and trucks

Chimes in traffic hiccup

After rainfall her guts brim up

With clouds of dust and heat

Traders sell from window shops

Hawkers shout their goods and wares

In the bustle no one cares

As Lagos buries her face in the din

Moneymakers march around

With gaping holes in their smiles

Waiting quotes from a thousand miles

Like eager miners of coal

Area boys in nooks and crannies

Unemployed lungs roaming the streets

Perpetrators of criminal feats

By-products of greed and corruption

The politician`s pensive mood

Surmise a swell time in the House

Passings of bills for a little grouse

And time to loot the nation`s fund

Black beauties stroll past night clubs

Delicate bronze bodies in brocades

Outlines like silhouettes of sunshade

Waiting for Lagos` filial embrace

Lagos drags herself to sleep

She sleeps but she burns

In perpetual mirth she churns

While footfalls die away