First they kill your image,
Next they isolate you,
Through threats and blackmails,
They shame you,
Tell white and black lies against you
Make you hate yourself,
Pay others to hate you.
Now they can worry you to death
Like a cat would a rat.
The Label owns you
So they label you,
A thief and a criminal.
The brand owns you
So they rebrand you,
Violent and insolent.
You are haunted down
Like a rabbit pursued by a tiger,
Mohbaded on every side, at home
And abroad.
Finally,
When you are exhausted, in mind,
Body and soul,
You take the easy way out
Of a world made hellish by cultists and occultists,
Drug lords and power monsters,
In institutional garbs,
Whose network and net worth
Reach to the farthest ends of the earth.
Your funeral is well attended,
Your killers hold the candles
That light your way to the underworld,
Those who betrayed you pay for your coffin,
Ensuring that you are not comfortable in it.
Those who haunted you sing your praises,
With malicious delight twinkling in their hearts,
While your youth and talents are buried amidst helpless
Tears from equally helpless family and friends.
Those who poisoned you buy the drinks
And celebrate with shady tears on their cheeks.
The label owns you,
In the music and book industries,
Ruled by Marlians and Pirates.
The brand rebrands you, a slave to the brand.
Your light is snuffed out, your life cut short
With all the dreams vanished and vanquished.
Then they struggle for the fruits of your gifts
Which they coveted
but which they failed to give you credit for.
The world cries a few tears but there is no justice,
For those who hold the key to justice bow to unjust men,
Those who keep the law dine with rich criminals,
Those who should fight for the weak
are in the pockets of the powerful.
And so justice lies buried with you, rots
alongside your skeleton while the world
continues unaware of your non-existence.
Before you are Mohbaded, you’d better start
Fighting. . .
©Eyoh Etim, 2023