World Cancer Day #adieus

Tribute to Broccoli and Bitterleaf

Adieu to the days of old
When for a spared child was a spoilt rod
When it mattered not
And we cared not
For horrors can-encased
Or evils polymers enclosed

Adieu to the days of old
When all we cared abt was food in it’s green
Rid of colourants
And guilty of no odourants
When it needn’t be fried brown
Before it’s taste is crowned

Adieu to the days of old
When there was life in the living
And we lived before we died
With Methuselah the youngest
Bodies taut yet gymless
Ripened with age but not frail

Adieu to the days of old
When of cancers we knew not
And of abiraterone, we heard not
The king of evils was a good ol’ headache
And for stomachs that ran,
We tied down with leaves that climbed

Adieu to the days of old
When we needn’t copy their food
Because we ate healthier
The days before the noodles and fries
Before we left cocoa and clung to choco
The brown seed of overindulgence

Adieu to the days of old
When Egusi meddled with Akpu
Symbolizing an Igbo dalliance
And Ewedu coruscating on Amala
Signified a western balance
And with each Tuwo, was a shinkafa

Adieu to today,for we’ve all turned brown
Dying at fifties with plenty glitches
Talking cancers with no answers
Just names for the parts maimed
Of the blood-leukemia
Of the skin-a carcinoma

Adieu to today, for we’ve ran out of adieus
All we are left with are dues
The results of the Broccoli exit
and Bitterleaf sabbaticals
That which tickled our tongues shapeless
Has left our bodies lifeless

The price of choosing brown over green
We remember the 10th day before every valentine

#A cancer free world
#The Pills Universe
#late post

(C) Ujam Kene Eric A 2017