Poverty is painful
Vincent Kwame Fianu
        
What will make
a grown man
abandon his own
family and friends
to seek greener pastures
somewhere far from home?
 
What will make
a grown man
forsake his wife’s warmth
in this cold weather
to a colder country
and suffer frostbite injury?
 
What will make
a grown man
risk his life
through illegal means
using unapproved routes
to go to a strange land?
 
Poverty is wicked!
It compels man
to embark on a journey
of a possible no return
or an embarrassing one
sometimes in chains.
 
Perhaps it makes no difference
You will die if you stay
You may die if you go
But dying in your country is better
You may receive a befitting burial