Life in a Picture

I am glad a whole lot has been left behind

My tears, my hunger and mistakes too

I take a fresh start

I become once more new

To take a love and play with tools

I am off to a new life where the sun is brighter and the grass is greener

And when there is colour it is pink

Where there is sweet it is butterscotch

When it is cold it is winter

And when I am tickled it will be white girl

I leave home

I leave all behind

I am glad, perhaps I am

To a make mistakes a new

T o unlearn the art of farming and take up intellect

To unlearn the art of hunting to embrace catching my train

I leave all behind to become novice afresh

I leave my home to make myself someone else

In another room in God’s green earth

I leave to find life again

This time a stranger to homes I shall see

And a warning to the love I may find

I leave for another picture

Olonija

Oloibiri began this dark day

A scarlet sun rising from the South

Broken dreams that started wild

The West rushed

The East gurgled

I woke to it all

I woke to the energy

The life of surprise

I watched in ewe

I watched in excitement

Vessels sprouted from the earth

Mud turned mansions

And wildernesses grew silver manes

Broken from this wild picture

Searching in these growing thoughts I sort

For the bright promise of my dream

The bright tomorrow for my brothers

My sisters love for cassavas

And my father’s love for fish

All buried, killed, forgotten

Oh Naija, how you broke me

Bruised me against my own loyalty

Bore me drenched in my blood

Bore me hungry, empty, wild

Naija you stole my heart and my innocence

You raped me endlessly in the darkness promising me life

You promised hope, love and all that I looked forward to

Naija, Naija, Naija! How can I?

How can I once again trust the lips that lied?

That kissed the bruises of my heart ache?

That cursed the vulnerable breasts of my ignorance?

Naija yet, Naija forever

Naija shocking

Naija, Naija, you are hurting...

So am I.

Out-scream the rain

What do you think of when you sleep at night

When all you trophies are place before you?

What do you hope for when you think of time

When your past is behind you?

And in your prayers, do you feel so small

Just like a shell beside the raging seas

And in that chair, do you feel s lost

Like a storm drowned in the earth

Can you out-scream the rain when the sky gets angry?

Can you out-walk the waves if they were your enemies

Can you rule the sun and tell her when to set?

Hold the trees and ask them not to fret

Can we live together , even in times as dark as this?

Can we love forever even in life’s little wind?

Can we be gods unto man or unto ourselves

Or can I be still unto you, hide in my shell?

My heart be simple, wiser I refuse to be

That I may love and trust so endlessly

I can’t out-scream the rain or out-walk the waves

I can’t rule the sun, or explain life’s pain

But I can live and love and believe

I can fight and pray and perceive

And when I pray, I love to feel so small

Like a mute brown shell bejewelling the sharp white shore

When I sleep, I enjoy being numb

Trusting, but thinking nothing

Because, I let nothing bother me

And I pride in my littleness

Because indeed, little means free

I Stand Forever for You

I stand forever for you

Defending you in my prayer and thoughts

Defending you in my victory

I kneel forever for you

Speaking the laws

And making them true

I died yet live for ever

I survive with you

To see you through

To win with you

That your wrong may be right

And the clearest sight may see

That from all these hurdles

You are victory and more than free

So I stand forever

I have danced for you

I have paid your price

I kneel for you before flames and fan

I defend you because through faith and love I can

So be strong, simple and free

And grow like age, spring and trees

For all that was absent I have brought here

Thus you no longer have to fight

You no longer have to shed a tear

Farewell to my ola

I bid farewell to my Ola

Who once made the younger me

I said goodbye to my long lost brother

Who had set the man in me free

He returned the night of endless dreams

That once had stolen my smile

He tickled my heart in sweet ordeal

That once stood a ragged pile

I felt my love bounce off my chest

And return so swiftly to its place

I felt my youth return to me

As I burned from love’s furnace

But he returned a prince

A soulmate to another

As I had known some years before

“I believe”, I thought

But now I saw, I doubted even more

I spilled my blood to hurt my mind

That I be distracted by the pain

But all the while as I had earlier loved

I basked in endless love’s rain

The night returned and so did the dreams

Of endless love reborn

But they were dreams

As a wild goose chase

And to my heart a simple thorn

As the hadith pages my spirit read

I felt pain in my heart red

I said a prayer for a dead mild lover

And laid hurting on my bed

The morning was dark, we treaded the path

To the point where bid farewell

 Again I never believed  as I now stood before death’s well

I craved to hug but didn’t dare

Because now I knew

This love as I felt

With my sanity few

Was more than a heartache tomorrows away

My brother-friend and lover still

Had brought this sweetness to an end

Allah be praised as the morning rise

And I bath in my heartache and cries

I had lost my friend

To the world’s extreme end

And I to another unfound

Today I forget my lover’s smile

As it was as mere as a dream

As we now pray to one Sweet God

In beds afar and distant tongues

In worlds we had once not known of

Nothing stood in love’s place now but memories

As we have been claimed by life

By transcendant books and sweet matrimonial stories

Yet Unhappened

The colours of eternity

With whom all the promises of life are bound

With endless rage and subtle doubt

When our eyes are shut and hearts abound

Red, the colour of beauty

That gives life and baths our heart

Nurtutring our dreams and passions

The soul of erection and orgasm

The wine for death and bread

The petals for love and viking pain

Orange, the colour of bonding

That knots the blossom and bloom

And tends our dreams with sweetness

That preserves our secrets

And makes the now seem sweetest

Conquering our tommorow in today’s tempest

Yellow, the colour of friendship

That tours the soul of man

And arrests his sour misery

That tickles man’s tears

For every trouble that man is worth

Green, the colour of hope

With whom our tomorrow lies

As petals may or may not grow

That reflects our humanitty

And betrays our pride

Where creation is watching, where the mighty died

Blue, the colour of oeace

The prize of freedom

That sirens man’s imagination

And unleashes his thirst

That may never stand to be true

That may never see the end

Indigo, the colour of betrayal

That unveils the heart

And punctuates the soul

After all the ‘fiery-forever’ is gone

And love no longer seems to shower

After the fields are yellow and dry

And orgasm ceases to ponder

Violet, the colour of wisdom

After the broken heart

And the flesh of her being, deflowered

That preserves the unseeming

And directs the beauty yet unshowered

And the secrets yet unhappened

Yet unthundered skies are unkissed by her misery

And virgin soil untouched by his mystery

We remain virgins even after violation

For ignorance had no fair prize

Even woman’s womb knows

And man’s unrevealing eyes

Eka aro my love

The morning is beautiful my love

With the brilliant sun greeting us afresh

God pleases that we see another day

Eka aro my love

Please wake up to the daunting freshness of this peaceful day

When all but the darkness is awake

That I may share life and light with you at least one more day

Eka aro my love

I am once more open to new adventures

Affectionately embracing both you and your imperfections

I am once more beside you and in love with you

Eka aro my love

You are not responding my love?

And the sun’s sweetness no longer tickles you

Please wake up my love, my loving heart awaits

Eka aro my love

I am closer now my love

With my palms greeting your hair and face

Is all well my love? I yearn for your love’s embrace

Eka aro my love

You are no longer breathing- I am scared my love

My heart has now one new emotion

Please do not tease me, you are my solution

Eka aro my love

I am still beside you

Just like that morning you passed away

I am still loving and, like this morning, here to stay

I greet you, Eka aro my love

It is raining my love

And  like the sun, our love is still brilliant and silent

So I am standing here for all you mean

Because you are still sweet and true

Eka aro my love, it is I who greets you.