The Middle Ground Between Africa and Alaska!

As I look through the library window to the outside here,

I find it dull and misty all over, out there

I see people of all ages and both genders with drooped heads walking in apparent dejection

Clad heavily in dark attires they all walk hooded as if in some enchantment

They are not enchanted but the weather appears damning and enchanted

I wonder how in the world the men and women of Alaska would be in love with this kind of weather

But their roads are nice and their environment is clean

They live their lives in safety and their homes are warm

Their governments are caring and those in power are of their choosing

Which then is better for Africa's son as in this clean, developed but cold environment he wonders?

Give me the brightness and the sun any day

I would rather walk tall in the warmth of nature's sun

Than crouched up in opulence in multiple sweaters of winter

I will rather fan myself in the heat of summer

Than blow myself hot in the engine air of winter

I will rather clear the facial sweat with moist fingers

Than wear gloves on all ten fingers with hands in my pockets

And when the fluffy whiteness drops from the skies at noon

I know it is not snow flakes but some fluffiness from some cotton trees

I remember the fluffiness that accompanies the December pollen dust 7000 miles away

There have never been any mounds of snow but mounds of garbage may be found

No, but mounds of other uncertainties almost always therein abound

There have hardly been good governance and public accountability, not much that one can remember

And so, give me the cold with good governance and I can make the heat

Give me high quality education and I can move the mountains

Give me the opportunities for development of my children's potentials and leave the rest to me

Show me the path to success and shame on me if I fail

Though in all we see, you gain one and lose the other

Mother Nature is forever even-handed to the core and so little should be our complaint.

If it were possible to eat one's cake, have it and not be accused of equivocations,

I would opt for the good roads and good governance of Massachusetts as here I rant

I would equally opt for the lovely warmth of Africa's sun seven thousand miles away.

Oliver Akamnonu