Sixty-six gongs beat now
Since nine timed 60,
One followed nine.
The river of songs jumped
From every water body
In the land of our birth,
Over doubts and denials,
On the first day of the tenth month,
When we remembered how we lowered
The Union Joke and hoisted
The green-white grin
To find the right face to smile.
As notions get the motions
To find the square root,
To number the days that count,
The even and odd numbers
And the compound interest
That accrue from the equation
In the algebra of living ethnicities
And legions of religiocities
And the bold joy they find.
After Flora’s naming which we welcome,
With Liliian’s anthem to the court
Of the Queen, our mother
That we love for the commonwealth
And her primer
Which we teach our children
With end-time fervor, until Charlie came
And we guarded with Musa at the gate
To mind the common woe.
Which we rue and rule
To find a giant place in the sun,
Because for Nigeria, October
Is January, the beginning of months,
When the sky is shedding her final tears
And harvest fields are springing
In the greenery that greets
And salutes the flags of new rising,
As the numbering continues
For the Least Common Multiple
Of the Highest Common Factor of nationhood.
Happy 66th Birthday, Nigeria
Happy New Month
@Sam Ogabidu
