Category: Poetry

Rebel Yell

My spirit wakes up
with a rebel yell
Go back to sleep!
He screams

We need not face the day
when the devil shows his face
Death seems merciful

Why must men toil?
Have I been spoiled by privilege?
We used to hunt and throw spears
Now the mere thought of the rat race
springs internal tears

A mountain of fears
weigh heavy on me like Atlas

It surely is tempting to jump into the abyss
Yet every morning I soldier forward
not knowing my destination
Doomed to repeat the cycle
as sure as the earth spins its axis

Though my wife lay next to me
I am alone
She cannot save me
from this spiritual vexation

God himself has allowed me
to keep churning
until I slay the devil himself
on my own
I am alone

By Thomas Agbonyitor

For the Love of Jesus

Remember the Holy Spirit
God is great with him

Trust him
Feel him
Love him
Remember him

In the year of our Lord 2024
The world spins off its axis

Children are depressed
The old act young
Boys are girls
And vice versa

Life is an immersrive VR game
with no structure or rules

We need God
We need you

Capitalists exploit the masses
with houses, cars, pills and food

The masses can’t change
without the individual
But individuals can’t
think for themselves
What are we to do?
Except cry a Nile river of tears

They would shoot you dead
for making change
Surely they would
Sooner than we would
shoot our oppressors

Then my faith reassures me
Prayer, words and the pen
are mightier than guns
Surely Jesus will come
and all will be made right
Wouldn’t that be a blessed sight?

By Thomas Agbonyitor

A Feather in the Wind

Thoughts come and go
The fluidity of thoughts and time are irrevocably linked

One moment I’m dreaming
of changing past trauma
or inventing it
creating a new drastic future
in the present

My human experience is a cacophony
of memories, dreams, visions and sensations
that make the present feel like a surreal
stream of consciousness
that is neither real nor imagined

Am I real?
Or is this the Matrix?
Am I the one,
bending space and time like Neo?
or is it the nature of the Universe
to bend to our will?

Death will come
Time will tell
Or will there be nothingness,
which may be the rest we’ve longed for?
Or maybe we live forever as spirits
dancing through mediums
like a feather in the wind

God only knows
I only know I am here hereafter
until nevermore never exists
This is the eternal paradox
That the measure of life’s existence
is existence itself

Lions

I reach for the harvest
The seeds that I’ve sown
Have come to fruition

My intuition told me
That life was unfair

I walked sands of the earth
Watching the tide pull back
Not knowing where I was going
Just basking in the glory
Of God’s nature

His Word came first
Then we were created
The culmination of
ventures fared

Though without a care
We walked the Garden of Eden
Until fig leaves covered our privates
After the snake’s snare

We dared to defy God
and be banished from utopia
As sinful as we are
We were born to suffer

Generations later
We grow in kindness and love
As society crumbles around us
But His Word remains the same
And the fruit of our bounty unaltered

We are lions
Untamed and free
Roaring on the cliff of serendipity

By Thomas Agbonyitor

Nothing Lasts Forever

Holding my breath
submerged beneath the ocean
I blew bubbles to the surface
and swam to the top

I treaded water there
surrounded by everything and nothing

I felt God’s presence
in the awesome calmness of the water
and in my breath
that I could see in the cold air

Suddenly
I saw a shark swimming towards me
I swam to the safety of the boat
Catching my breath on the floor
salt water dripping from my limbs

Nothing lasts forever

By Thomas Agbonyitor

Joy

Life breeds pain
Struggle is its essence

God expelled us from the garden
to toil the earth
Women must feel pain at birth

We wake up to study, work and chore
Most of of it seems a bore
Sleep is a Godsend
Some of life’s greatest moments
happen while dreaming
But every now and then
we live our dreams while awake

We take a flight to a beach
and galavant on the shore
We dance the night away
with a beautiful girl or boy

Sometimes joy is just
laying on a couch
watching a show
Or diving into a slice of pizza
or an ice cream cone

The height of heights
is the touch of a significant other
that you longed for

Joy can just be the hope
of so much more
because we don’t know what’s in store

I think the greatest joy would be
to get the answer to the great questions
and see God’s face
Then finally we might feel
we’ve found our place

By Thomas Agbonyitor

King’s Lair

Savagery surrounded me.
In a den of fierce lions, I was home.
Not alone, He was with me.

Snarling teeth, sharp claws, roars.
I was the toast and the main course.
They hated me for my righteousness.

Some named me demon.
But everyone felt me
some type of way.

I could not fight or flee.
That choice was taken from me
so God carried me away.

He delivered me from the snares
of torturous death to salvation,
all because I lived as a child of God
and the blame was not mine to carry.

Painting by Sir Peter Paul Rubens
Daniel in the Lions’ Den
Flemish 1577-1640

By Thomas Agbonyitor

Nostalgia

Born with a rebel yell
I emerged upon the scene
Silence quelled the spirits

He was a special child
Reflecting on times of yore
My innocence was taken for granted
My unbridled passion moved me

to the forest
to the field
to the sea

I smelled like outside
When I discovered full showers
I discovered women

Watching movies
And drinking OJ
were the only aphrodisiacs I needed

I discover women still
With every page I turn
I see myself

Now I worry about money and bills
I miss the thrill of a long night out
that never became tomorrow

At tomorrow’s end
I long for the days of
yesterday’s presence
and the perfection of today’s existence
but am filled with sorrow

By Thomas Agbonyitor