Poetry

UN photo

 

By

Fiyinfoluwa Olajesu

 

 

 

Heartfelt Sob

 

 

let the sky fall & the wind tussle

like hot water inside a kettle

 

let the sun no longer shine so brightly,

let the moon only provide my darkness.

doom has befallen a child of the soil

& a budding flower has been stripped of her glory.

 

a child has been carried hostage &

she is bound with chains & fetters

like a slave, her mouth has been shut;

she has no strength in her

to cry for rescue.

 

she is a forgotten one —

a desert where no tree grows.

 

this child is a victim,

a victim in the hands of those

that should shield her

 

all the hands that should

scratch her back are prickled

by thorns

thorns which bore holes

her body swims in a red ocean

 

a shame inflicted by the world,

despaired with no living hope,

a wind that should carry goodies

caught up in a balloon,

 

burst with punches of sorrow

oh, who will save her from the

captive of the strong man,

who will deliver this unlawful captive

from her captivity?

 

 

 

 

 

Like the Stars in the Morning

 

 

I remembered,

When I still ate àmàlà

With a straw & swallowed

My biscuit like an old man

 

Without teeth

 

In the days of socks & short nickers

In a school not far from my house

But for the 100km trek

 

When dad’s money had been swept

away—under the carpet of junk eating

How Owolabi, the boy with his dollars

 

 

Went to a party of no return

How he went to eat with the gods

In the third heavens after a gun shot

 

How he made us sit under the oak tree

drenching our bodies with

The rainfall from our eyes

 

How his friends bathe in the dust of sorrow

& wash in the ashes of his death

 

Things he did became a story to tell

In the mouth of young & old

 

I too will one day wear the cloth of dust

My eyes will forever be closed

& my heart will no longer look for love

My ghost will be chanting

“How I turn a refuse dump to a palace

How I turn a slum to a city

How I bid death bye with the bowl of chilled water

And how I give life to a rotting rioting soul…”

 

 

*Àmàlà is an indigenous food of the Yorubas, Southwestern part of Nigeria.

 

 

 

 

 

Fiyinfoluwa Olajesu

Fiyinfoluwa Olajesu is an up and coming Nigerian Poet and a trained Educator. He writes about love, females and life generally. He has a number of poems to his credit and he wishes to create a strong voice through his poems in the nearest future.