Africa Poetry Magazine

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"Amber of the State" by Kamaldeen Aishat Temilolu

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September 15th, 2026

Amber of the State

by Kamaldeen Aishat Temilolu

You can measure the pulse of a people
by how little the names of their leaders matter –
when a society is meaningful, the politician is a ghost,
a quiet servant in a house of stone.
But here, the shadows grow long and loud.

Brilliant minds enter the gears of governance,
golden sparks flying into the dark maw of the machine.
They arrive with fire, only to find the hearth is cold –
for the State was never forged for the swift,
it was built for the slow, heavy drag of consensus.

It is a cathedral of committees and rubber stamps,
where the system, not the soul, dictates the pace.
We starve not for lack of wit or wisdom,
but for the lack of a bridge between two hands.
Government is not a question of intelligence –
it is a problem of coordination.

Sixty years we have reached into the earth,
pulling black gold from the veins of the soil,
yet we remain trapped in the amber of "why."
Everything is a campaign, every breath is a vote –
it decides the school desk for the child not yet born,
the price of the bread on the cooling rack,
and the strength of the currency in a tired man's palm.

You may turn your face, you may claim the silence,
but the game is a hunter that knows your name.
Whether you lean left or right, or stand still in the storm –
your bias is the tax you pay to exist.

Oh, Africa –
give the reins to those who can guide the horse
without staining the silk of the saddle,
without mocking the thirst of the traveler,
without proving my bitterest thoughts to be true.

They tell us politics is a game played in the mud –
if so, let us find a private water,
and cease washing our dirty linen before the crowd.

About the Poet
Kamaldeen Aishat Temilolu resides in Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria.
Read the poet's biography and Wax Poetry and Art publications
on Kamaldeen Aishat Temilolu's Artist Page.

This poem is also featured in Poetry World #16, published in the Wax Poetry and Art Library.

Previously published in Africa Poetry Magazine:
Addicted to Darkness
by Siphokazi Mjijwa

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