A country Betrayed



The moon shone brightly
The waves pondered gently
The stars blinked brilliantly
The night was wondrous.

The hills echoed out our laughter
The fields were green
Children played as the raindrops fell
Music filled the countryside.

Then the gumboots and khakis came through
The clouds covered the moon
The stars stopped blinking
The waves pondered wildly.

My hills no longer echo
The fields now are brown
No raindrops do I see
Gravestones stand in place of the children.

About this poem

Written on January 2, 1984 as a 15 year old teenager, following a military coup in her home country Nigeria on December 31, 1983.

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Submitted by Mmoley on September 06, 2021

Modified on March 05, 2023

23 sec read
3

Quick analysis:

Scheme AAAX XXXX XXXA XXAX
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 466
Words 78
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4

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    "A country Betrayed" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/108729/a-country-betrayed>.

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