Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
 
Geniuses from the Diaspora
 
From yonder cometh genius
The wunderkind
Of the forgotten continent
Brains of fire
Minds on heat
Spirits at speed
 
Masterminds of masterworks
Denizens of the coveted Diaspora
Bespeak the gleam
Of a dream beatified
On the platter of junk.
 
A veteran of JAMB mishaps
In the high noon of structural adjustment
Transplants on alien towers
And rebounds in short seconds
A prodigy named signifying monkey.
 
Geniuses from the Diaspora culture
The remnant rabble of the race
On the fugitive highway
Toward the hem of the horizon
For sorcery canonizes visa lottery.
 
 
Uzoatu Discovers America
 
Before Columbus
I, Uzoatu
Son of Umugama Umuchu
Discovered America
And put United
Into the States
From Alaska
To the Zoo
Whence I escaped
The aboriginal apeman
Laden with tropical terrorism
And verbs of mass destruction.
 
Now the word is out
In drones of terror
For Yankee land
Of the cowboy fancy
In films of fluff
Never cultured
Until my bombing advent
In an underwear of horror
To put History
With a capital H
Where it fatally belongs:
The Fiction shelf.
 
 
 
Uzor Maxim Uzoatu took degrees in Theatre and Literature. He was a rural peasant theatre director before venturing into journalism. The 1989 Distinguished Visitor at the Graduate School of Journalism, University of Western Ontario, Canada, he was nominated for the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2008 for his short story “Cemetery of Life” published in Wasafiri magazine, London. He is the author of the poetry collection God of Poetry.