Beat Them Odds- Joseph Leema

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Last updated: 2024/03/28 at 5:55 AM

By admin Published March 28, 2024 5 Min Read

5 Min Read

After suffering the crux of drug addiction for some two consecutive years, with an estimated timeline of four years intermittently involved in the subtle propagation of the self-destructive habit; I am glad and proud to say I’m a survivor.

Three months down the line, it’s one accomplishment after another; blessings upon blessings, and favour favour all the way, for which I am grateful to God for. My life is indeed a testimony. But you all have to forgive me, please.

Why? To be honest with you all, the first form of writing as a craft that I ever embarked on was poetry on the 5th of February 2016. So what? Well I’m addicted to poetry, haha – lol. In essence, I find it difficult to write or express myself without using figurative expressions or devices. Apologies please.

So, now that the storm is over, it’s high time I shared some of the poems that could vividly portray the image of what I underwent during addiction and how grateful I am to God. I would have been history by now, but here I am rewriting history.

For today’s publication, it would be a poem – forgive me for overfeeding your reading appetite with poems throughout this week – that I’ll be featuring which resonates with the current state of affairs in my country Sierra Leone; the Kush and drug addiction war.

Grateful to God for new opportunities; writing features, lecture(s) on drug addiction, increase in network; on-demand for writing, teaching, mentoring and collaboration, and some yet to be materialised plans. All of these I’m indebted and so thankful to God for His faithfulness; grace and mercies bestowed on me.

Due to my past and wealth of experience, I can write a poem in a short period of time and can even write many poems in a day just like the poem I’m about to share was also written on the same day I wrote the last poem I shared – Addiction Taught Me, these two poems and about five others were written on the 8th of February 2024. This one is titled Veteran Zombie.

What are the things you have suffered but yet survived eventually? How did you find strength to submerge your pain and emerge out of that weakness with a mindset to beat them odds? If you see someone suffering similar to what you experienced or that which you can help would you render a help devoid of society’s perception? Till then, a big hug from the Word Maestro is blessed you. Shalom!

VETERAN ZOMBIE

“`Pops Mac would say,
it's high time to
bounce back;
be bold
Blak Baba:
wipe those tears
and look again;
your season of doom
will certainly and clearly
bring you into
a whole new era.

Mam' 'Cess had this to say;
if you don't know shame,
pain, or indignation, while
hoping for a turnaround,
then you have
no idea of
what life has
in store to offer
the living,
especially those
who are unteachable…

This is what
I have to say:
I know what it means
to sleepwalk;
I'll be looking at you
with dull
and squinted eyes,
yet you're not
my focus or muse.
I have walked the streets
at odd hours
when men are scared
to dare the road
in fear of attack
of the unknown
or a smack from
the ethereal world:

I have lived life
a walking dead,
just ask my network…
I can squander:
was a smooth criminal
though no walls
could confine me,
for I was nocturnal.
Well, if you think
you stand a chance,
bet you should
first die
to everything high,
otherwise you
will never know
what it means to be low,
or live life a conqueror
for you ain't familiar with
the stakes of death
like Lee
a veteran zombie…“`