Green Fields

first, the soil began to cry
we were too busy to listen
then the crops too began to disappear
but we are a people used to managing
we could feed on sweat and blood
and everyone
would sleep and wake smiling
then the farmers began to disappear
but it was common for them to be gone for long
till their kids joined the long missing list
and then we joined,
our kids, brothers, sisters
till villages began to reduce to settlements
settlements became hamlets, clans
and the nation has become a mourning club.

Victor Oyedele