‘Burnt Men’ By Oluwasegun Romeo Oriogun: A Review

Review

By

Ogunniyi Abayomi

Art, can it be referred to as an instrument of sanity within the image of an insane world? The salient voice of justice can become an illusion and misinterpretation of desire and emotional appeal of attached lust.

A gift is sometimes classified for an opaque enticement rather than the picture we share with society against those who crush the beauty of our freedom for reality that built an existence that is never firm. An obvious task beneath our breath is to find a voice of beauty in the turmoil of crises within society, addressing the problems that manipulate the identity of ourselves in the limited bound of torture.

I read Oluwasegun Romeo Oriogun’s chapbook ‘Burnt Men‘ with the mind of an artist to decipher the vision of a sane society by the tool of poetry.

The world breeds hypocrisy beneath the veil of a puritan, a follower who destroys humanity in the name of books and prophets, admonishing the doctrine that the love of God for the human lives.

What do I observe in this first verse of his chapbook? The act of diversity in the atmosphere from religion to gender in the noise of fire in the bane of ignorance twisted in the veil of faith.

“It is not sunday,

but men will write fire on

the skin of their lovers,

and call it God word to kill

a man.

Place a tyre over his head

set it on fire,

but ahes are not dead men

they are bodies,

Flying to freedom”

(Burnt Men by Oluwasegun Oriogun Romeo)

The preaching of condemnation comforts the sinners in the cloak of a saint who neither understands the beauty of creation or the love of God. An abject tone of rejection towards the being of beauty who are not spared of their blood and water to live are quite evident in the brilliant imagery of a fragmented society.

“The preacher said gay men will

burn in hell,

I swear my tongue burns

everytime I say the word love,

I do not know when men began

to burn men for saying the word

love”

We are left with the raging question amidst a turbulent society that discriminates the being of beauty, they are a wandering identity that are eliminated in the name of religion without heart rather than the name of love endowed by God.

“but i know that a man in

love is close to God

he can hear the heartbeat”

Likewise, can we pursue the essence of freedom amidst these turmoils? What do we have to do to build a free society other than fight and struggle to love one another for the institution of peace?

“even with chains

you cant stop a man from

loving another man”

The society can never be sane if this brilliant sermon by the poet is discarded. For the art we preach beauty to fight against the act that connives against humanity.

Oluwasegun Oriogun Romeo

Oluwasegun Oriogun Romeo is a Nigerian poet whose poems have appeared in literary blogs and journals such as the Kalahari Review. He is in love with nature and his imaginary dog, Sky. He is the author of the chapbook Burnt Men.

Ogunniyi Abayomi

Ogunniyi Abayomi was born July 11, 1991 in the city of Lagos, where he resides. A poet and essayist whose works have been published in various journals.