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SUNSET SOLDIERS BY IFECHUKWU MUONYILI

Sunset Soldiers



At dusk you see them
Armed to the teeth
Like medieval soldiers at war field,...
Deploying all their scourges to areas;
Waging war against blooded beings


Soldiers of the sunset
Send forth their millions
To unleash discomfort to all and sundry.
They erupt from the bush
And make their way underneath my bed
Singing as though they were a choir of deplorable coloraturas
With their unwanted voices singing
Devastating songs that assure insomnia.

I smoke them with lethal poison
They dismiss only to emerge again
Wholly rebranded and now they bask
Luxuriously in my prepared potent poison.
I wear my pyjamas, thick gloves
And double pair of stocks ,
Sit under the mango tree,
Discussing with friends as we yet
Keep clapping on our bodies
As the sunset soldiers' arrows pierce
Through our garments to waste
Our life -filled substances

Sunset soldiers make me blue,
Fill my belly with elusive meals
And make me satisfied yet weak to the bones.
I burn like erupting volcanoes
I whirl in circles when I stand.
Some band groups constellate in my head
And dance dauntlessly.
At the end, a throb in my throat
Pushes forth and bursts through, letting
The remaining energy disappear.
All these happen with the sunset soldiers

By Ifechukwu. K. Muonyili

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