“MAY DAY” A POEM READ AT LOUDTHOTZ POETRY OPEN READING SEASON 3 EPISODE 3 BY OLARENWAJU KAKA

May Day

At the drop of blood,                                                                                                                          right before a dream lifts from its axis,                                                                                                                                                                      a boxer rises from the canvas                                                                                                                              empting  heart in glove;                                                                                                                                         Iike a surgeon into a writer                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Pressed down on a pen                                                                                                                                      Like an artery pumping words

The first time these words were felt,                                                                                                                                   I held a rope to heart,                                                                                                                                                 held  it                                                                                                                                                                  Calmed the air and Tugged hard:                                                                                                                                Not like a dog,                                                                                                                                                               More like a horse                                                                                                                                                       Till my world came to a full stop

On the 1^st of July,                                                                                                                                                            the anchors finally broke                                                                                                                                             And reinforcements had to be brought in                                                                                                              And after almost months on a shipwreck,                                                                                                                      The revolutions finally ended                                                                                                                                   Killing off every cupid                                                                                                                                             and murdering every contrary thot in cold blood

  By  night fall,  it was done                                                                                                                                                                                     I had created a monstered knight:                                                                                                                                                 no queen on board                                                                                                                                               Blocking out all tunnel vision                                                                                                                                 Erasing every file                                                                                                                                                 Scrubbing out every floor,                                                                                                                                         Every outlet, every vent, and every cell                                                                                                                 Until my heart was blank:                                                                                                                                            A spotless fortress to nothing                                                                                                                       Maximum secured, a silencer to all

Then one night                                                                                                                                                                10 years into a marriage                                                                                                                                                  I got a call                                                                                                                                                                      And all froze                                                                                                                                                                         I froze                                                                                                                                                                       Paused in an inception                                                                                                                                          I heard her voice again                                                                                                                                               And in that moment                                                                                                                                                I lost the war,

KAKA

"THIS LAGOS: Conflicting Emotions" A POEM READ BY OLANIYAN DOYIN AT SEASON 3 EPISODE 4 OF LOUDTHOTZ POETRY OPEN READING "ENGAGE"

This Lagos: Conflicting Emotions

There is something almost primal. About the excitement I feel when a conductor yells at a passerby.

Oloshi! Oloriburuku! Why do I giggle? What's so funny?


There is something almost sinful. About the indifference I feel.

When I pass by another able bodied beggar. Bloody opportunists.


There is something almost careless. About the pull that I feel. 

To enter that buka and order that succulent looking ogufe. Bacterial nutrition. 


There is something almost hilarious. About the flooded potholed streets I bounce across.

 Every  time I drive through one of the most expensive real estate in Africa.

Nestled cozily on a Nigerian island. Come, lemme sell you a bridge that traverses the desert. loool


There is something almost Darwinian. About the pushes and shoves that I make.

 To enter that bus on a rainy day. The impatient dog  gets the meat, mehn.


There is something almost like a boiling rage that I feel.

 When that policeman uses his baton on that cripple.

He tries to cross the street on his slab of wood with wheels.

But he is in the way of his oga's heavily tinted Range Rover. Cripple-dom isn't blind-dom, is it?

  
There is something almost unjustly accusatory. 

About what I feel.

 When I see that stupid, 20 something year old lady. Backing one, lapping two, pregnant with one or two or three. Who cares? Irrational breeding.


There is something like a sad curiosity that I feel.

When I pass by that 80 something year old woman.

Seating in mud. A tattered - clothed beggar. Heck, where is her family?


There is something like a fear inside of me

. When I see that little girl. Just budding into adolescence. Being ogled lasciviously by those dirty looking bastards.

As she walks happily across the road. Oblivious. Oh Lord, please!


There is something almost surreal. About the way it seems.

When I approach that area boy, strung out on weed, to ask for directions.

He doesn't only show me the way, he walks me to my destination.

He asks for nothing. 'Twaale mama' is all he says as he disappears into the night. Indescribable humanity.


There is something like a tug that I feel in my heart.

When I see that boy who can't be over 8 years old.

Hawking oranges as cars wheeze past him. Yet he laughs.

As he successfully chases after a bus and collects his N50.

Oblivious of the danger to his life.


This is something intriguing. With every sight and sound in Lagos.

Something fascinating. Its that pull.

 That makes one both love and hate this place. Conflicting emotions.

OLANIYAN DOYIN

"AFTER YOUR LAST BOW" A POEM READ BY AKEEM OYALOWO AT LOUDTHOTZ POETRY OPEN READING S3E4 ENGAGE

Akeem Oyalowo

After Your Last Bow

We found the wine

Spilled on the table

Still being called mine

By the bottle

When we see them gather

We know there is trouble

Father didn’t keep us together

He is on another level

Long gone

Curses walked him, titles off him

We are left with the sun

Just like Asake, who didn’t bear any sons

Good for that matter or daughters

Yet others called you father

From your loins, grew a seed in their mothers

Tales of your deeds were not new

But only Asake we knew

And she loved you

Just like the others, before, during and after you

Remember the morning, when you raced into her arms

All green but with arms

And you held title husband for a while

And left later to wild applause and smiles

And just like all loves

If the blood remains young, the hand might yet go back to gloves

Some men held Asake, after you did

Sucked her milk they did

They treated her less or better than you

Your history and hers were never through

Not even when she found a man

Who could have met all her demands

But your friends killed him

Just when a dead machine recovered steam

So all that was left was you

So you became the man promising to flush the loo

And by that you saved my life

Asake brought you back, became your wife

Despite your promises you again defiled

All that which filled your file

Those facts and figures which never lie

Produced my bile

My family is large don’t ask me why

Some friends are family, my family are not friends

What you did good, few as they were

I never knew until those hours

When mother and sister

Ran hither and thither

In a bid to heal, a son and brother

One hospital didn’t have beds, so the doctors didn’t bother

By this time, Asake had vowed

Your leaving this time was the last bow

But this two thousand men and women

Might not remember you well

But their destinies will

Added to mine, where a card from you, keeps me still

And provided this chance

To cite this instance…

Akeem Adetayo Oyalowo

April 7, 2012