Poetry

By

Abdulkareem Awwal Opeyemi

Cry of a spider

Like you toil day and night,

to pour safety on your head

So, too I toiled to house my tiny body

In the open mighty scraper built from nothing

How cruel are you

Thou son of the hairy skull

Whose inner temple wickedness squat

Thou homes you left,

In search of greener pasture

My home I vacate too in search of pastures

My mansion you demolished

In the name of defence

From powers never unseen

My sky scraper you forfeited

All in mythology belief

Defence I have not

But history shall tell

How the silent cry of spider

Causes him homeless

Ikumolu

Their blood drained just under the rain

That beat the land yesterday

Like we have no roof up there over our head

The birds and the scavengers savage the remains

Of the heroes, the flag bearers

That once carry the true eulogy of our home

Death, you gave us another name

Whose bearer dare not boast of

You carted away the name we were once proud of in your raid

And made us swallow the pill of an unanswered name

You stole away aduke and alake away from us

After the deadly wind you blew on ajala and cohort

Our only hope of kinship

And you wore on us,

A name sewn from the cloth of history

They changed our name,

Alake and aduke became a past name

We forgot the blood that draws from the ram

On the seventh day,

When aduke and alake were placed on us like a sacred land

“Ikumolu” becomes our new name

Like “akisa” became the new name for the useless gown

Glossary

Ikumolu: It’s said in Yoruba language that a woman doesn’t bear ikumolu, unless all the brave men in her family have been taken away by death

akisa: Yoruba name for rag

alake and aduke: Yoruba traditional name for females

ajala: Yoruba traditional name for a male

Abdulkareem Awwal Opeyemi

Kareem Awwal (ibn mudeer) is a native of Kwara state, a north central state of Nigeria. The passion for writting poem comes from when he was a secondary school student, his poems featuring in the school press club. He is a debator with many feats to be proud of, and is currently studying In Osmania University in Hyderabad, India. He won the marathon author award from penegg magazine in February and also participated in various literary competitions. His work has been reviewed in a number of websites, NIBSTEARS.BLOGSPOT.COM being his favourite. He is currently compiling his anthology.