For the #ChibokGirls #NeverToBeForgotten

Photo credit: nairaland.com

There are no words for deafening silence

There are no thoughts for numbness

There are no pictures 

Worthy enough for nightmares

There are no buckets enough

To fetch the tears of families

Directly caught in the vortex of this evil

A heinous crime against humanity

This is not a poem

This is for you:

Halima. Hannatu. Mayramu

Hauwa. Iyagana. Liyatu

Fatima. Rebecca. Lugwa

219 Chibok Girls. Our girls

Nigerian schoolgirls

Daughters of the world

In the torrents of shuddering emotions

The world found you

Hidden In the bowels of Sambisa

If only collective rage

On the media, Internet and social media,

-While our government dragged its feet

In denial and utterly shocking silence –

If only a million articles and broadcast

If only a billion and one tweets

Could have saved you

We would have brought you back home by now

Broken by your brazen abduction

By blood sucking vampires in human clothing

Nigeria is still at a loss over your forced absence 

Maybe we should have asked more questions

Right from the start

For your parents and a nation,

It’s been one year

Of gnawing pain, crushing grief

Not knowing exactly where you are...

But we hold on to strands of defiant hope

We believe in your redemption 

You must be rescued

Your safety is a task that must be done!

Cos your freedom would bring healing

And form a part of a nation’s liberation

From the pangs of a failed system

That’s why this army

#BringBackOurGirls

Would not stay silent

Thus, on the altar of collective rage

And heartfelt supplications

From Abuja’s heart,

China's centre, 

To America’s depth,

In diverse voices

United as one global cry,

We pray for your safety and rescue.

#BringBackOurGirls!

BringBackOurGirls!!

Gives us back our country’s future.

#ChibokGirls

#NeverToBeFogotten

© Arukaino Umukoro, 2015