Exhumed and reburied in metallic coffin

By Atok Dan

You are dead,

Gone you are with the rest of the unsung heroes and heroines

No longer in a hateful arena

You came once and have gone once

Could your soul still linger in space?

No one could tell

Only nature

Were you alive, life was sweet

Life was bitter

They killed you

Buried you and sat with word of a job well done

They hated you most

Without you, they eat, drink and laugh in appreciation of a job well done

Dearly did they pay to terminate you?

Like a bar of gold on the Gold Coast

Like a diamond in Kimberly

Like a first-world presidential jet

In your metallic coffin

Rest not restless

For they too are restless without you

 Killed in the battle, the better

 Lynched in scornful diplomacy, the better

 Buried without a coffin,

Exhumed and reburied in a metallic coffin

Killed by your nocturnal brother

Killed by your one-time boot licker

Death is none a punishment

For it is never a curse

It is a mission ended

For years will never come without you seeing them

For it is a compulsory journey

For a man worth not living if he has not gotten what he will die for  

You were an enigmatic figure

You were valor but your assassins killed you as a villain  

For your death never redeemed millions of dollars looted

Oil, soil and spoilers of black

By Atok Dan 

Oil, soil, and spoilers are all taken aback

oil is black but under the soil,

soil is black but on top of the oil

all are greasy black elements of survival

only waters traverse their un-demarcated borders

Never had you demanded UN peacekeepers

Never did you ask for arbitrators to demarcate your well-dwelled borders

As oil dollarizes our reserve,

Pounds domesticate our daily basket of consumption

We called it to market,

Economists called it stability

Black as you are;

should you one time be a lovely relative

Oil drives us

On soil, we plant seeds for food

Oh innocent black fossils

Oh innocent black surface

As you are seated comfortably in your subterranean,

politicians are restlessly seated in their swinging chairs

Geologists are troubled with machines to awake you for trouble

Well layered soil is disturbed to extract you

To dollarize the market

To quench their pitiless greed

To swollen their bellies

Dark as you, will darkness dwell in you

You are never troublesome even when on the pipelines,

You never know what to be done with you

Only find yourself on negotiating table

For automobile

Auxiliary sunshine at night

Your existence is suffering to innocent lives in Dar Nuba,

South Sudan and many others

You are a cursed material

You are never a good friend

Dirty as you are, never will the poor loves

You let politicians steal your price

Corruption is yours

Death is yours

Even an atomic weapon is your product

A bad gift

Black as you are, never should you one time be a friend to black-skinned

The Nile and Dar blend are your ugly names

Visual juggling

                                       By Atok Dan

I feel I’m lost, but could still hear voices

I could call but continue their direction,

Am visually lost

My voice falters in despair but it never bothers them

In between tall structures that resemble a forest

I found no way

I’m confused,

I’m visually lost

Never will I come back to the ghettoes of ghosts

In juggling options of getting out of a mental mess

I’m still visually impaired

I’m visually lost

Echoes from voices create chaos in my mind

I’m visually lost

My eyes dilate in fear of roaming the strange jungle

But still lost

My mind juggles options

It seems I’m on a fool's errand,

 fooled in the pool of foolish

As I stride, my mind echoes thunder in the forest

As I click foot,

The Rumble of leaves creates digestive churnings in my stomach

I’m lost and am a fool

Heavens roar with fire

I’m an errand on the run

Not a thief or an outcast but a dwarf in mind

Neither I nor you share the same

Season of happiness and businesses

Season of happiness and businesses

By Atok Dan Baguoot

As the first rains soften the black soil of South Sudan,

Birds and bats fly about with insects

littering skies with their wings

Fallen wings from white ants form also cataracts in our eyes

All form a cloud of the beauty of our nature

Buzzes of prey chasing predator forms pollution of the season

Swarms of flies become a tourism park for passersby,

Likewise, a flock of birds blankets the mild afternoon sun in our skies

Reptiles, birds, and frogs wrestle for glades in the forest

As birds and bats traverse the rainy greyish skies,

other flying insects wince to approach their holes for a hideout

With rains, goats run with upward pointed tails

wiggling sideways in a stormy air current

Chickens and doves flicker in the violent thunder of the rains

Rains restore hope for the next harvest

Farmer's dash for their seed to plant

Souls fly like birds that use airspace without fees

Evening comes for bats to flock without obeying space traffic norms

 Moles and rats race with thick clouds for food

Our eyes spray clear afternoon skies following a flock of birds at a distance

Some go in “V” and “U” shapes

They make living artistic styles over the skies

Our eyes fly about with birds

Later snow in the warm form hailstones

Birds and other wingless creatures are frozen in the cool of the year

It is the rainy season in South Sudan that life blossoms with flowers

It is the season of happiness and businesses

Farmers clear their fields, herders erect their byres

Other nocturnal animals prepare their dents for the long rainy season

Clear insects compile their harvest