MAY
BE – poem of the month
Sometimes we fail
And atimes we derail
From trying to know who we are
And how to best fit
Or get across life's pit.
Our actions and inactions
Pull from within
To question who we truely are
And why we have been dancing
To the silence of the world.
May be we shouldn't have been human.
Our heads keep reeling
Ransacking the core of our being
While we pour out the trashes in the bin,
Sift the good from the bad
Live to be happy or sad.
Maybe I should have been a woman.
Maybe I should have been
Like my friend who lived there
While I am still here
Living in disdain and fear.
I could have done what he did
Achieve his feat and plant my seeds
Destroy the thorns and weeds
That have made a companion of me.
Maybe I should have worked more
Do what everyone has been doing
Be smart enough to break a store
Leave behind morality for immoral
And blinded my thought to this path that I
thread
Maybe I should have been quiet
To the follies dumped by my door
And the brutalities that lies ashore
While I still strive to find a meaning
To what best I can become.
Maybe i should have tasted the noodles of lies
And deceitfully cremated the limbs of truth
Pretend to be like just everyone else
While I silently fade from within
And feed on chunks of sin.
Maybe I should have been dead
Than being alive
To cherish what living is.
Maybe I should have resigned my faith
Instead of helplessly holding on
While I become a stranger to myself.
Maybe
Maybe
And maybe if this never crossed my mind
These words would never have taken form
Maybe I was right
For drinking of this norm
And bathing hopefully in this storm
Maybe it shouldn't have been maybe
But to move on that I tried after all
Maybe the sun doth cries
When night takes his place
And the stars takes over
And lightens up the troubled night.
Maybe in my wrong
I was right after all.
Ayinla
Muyideen Adeleke
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
THROUGH
THE BACK DOOR -(worthy
of mention)
...
for Mansir, whose identity was mistaken...
They will let you out
Through a dark corner,
After putting you in spaces
You do not habit,
Spaces you would never habit.
They will let you out
Mansir;
Into a virtual space far from home.
They will let you out
Into a world of questions
And like an equation
The world will ask you D-y?
It's a stupid world created by a genius called god.
The dumb population wielding smartphones
Will ask why you painted your nails,
Why you wore Barbies' clothes,
Yet come with aa factory fitted penis.
They will profer exorcism,
From the spirits,
The bad spirits that inhabit you.
They want to rid you of spirits aversed to conformist
ideas,
Spirits that cause you to crave a walk off the tappered
edge of the flat earth;
Yes, your earth is flat.
They will let you out
Mansir,
Into a world without pencils to line your eyes;
They don't want you to see ghosts.
They will let you out
Into darkness,
Into a rigid world of roles and rules,
A world where dogs have more rights than men,
Where god has made it all and there is no room for
creativity.
They will let you out
Mansir;
And no one will appologise.
They will let you out
Set you forth before dawn,
When the day is neither black nor white;
Perhaps maybe when the skies are grey.
They will lead you through a corridor in the courts,
After the judge has found in you no flaw.
They's walk you through the blue door,
Disappointed that they cannot sate the mob's thirst for
blood anymore.
They will let you out
Mansir,
They will;
But only through the back door.
SOONEST
///////////////////////////////
MAKE UP YOUR MIND PEOPLE!
The Antelopes and the Goats voted for continuity
But the Tigers, Cheaters and Camels wanted change
Change has not fostered unity
Which isn't in any way strange
When sharks begin to marginalize other fish
Is it time to seperate the waters?
To give them the spoon and keep the dish
Or let sons live without daughters?
The Moon slowly turns red
The Sun covers her head
Our Houses are not equipped
Our Scales have been tipped
But while our Waters rage
The Rock leaves the stage
Does any animal really rape its young?
Do two males sing each other a mating song?
Do birds eat while starving their nests?
Our Elephant continues to fail all tests
The winds of change remain still
Yet we look hopefully at the hill
Watching the animals tango
Hoping the fish don't go
So what do we know?
So, So and So
Hmmmm
The Antelopes and the Goats voted for continuity
But the Tigers, Cheaters and Camels wanted change
Change has not fostered unity
Which isn't in any way strange
When sharks begin to marginalize other fish
Is it time to seperate the waters?
To give them the spoon and keep the dish
Or let sons live without daughters?
The Moon slowly turns red
The Sun covers her head
Our Houses are not equipped
Our Scales have been tipped
But while our Waters rage
The Rock leaves the stage
Does any animal really rape its young?
Do two males sing each other a mating song?
Do birds eat while starving their nests?
Our Elephant continues to fail all tests
The winds of change remain still
Yet we look hopefully at the hill
Watching the animals tango
Hoping the fish don't go
So what do we know?
So, So and So
Hmmmm
ERHIO
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
THE FRUIT NOT FORBIDDEN
Scarlet Woman!
Robed in seduction.
Flesh distinctively carved,
Flesh distinctively carved,
Voluptuous and
juicy;
Calling out for the
taste of the pudding,
Honeycomb and the
fruit not forbidden.
Who has made the
sweetness of a fruit forbidden
When each bite is
filled with delight?
Why rein the potency
of passion
When the flesh must
awake to touch and sight?
I taste of the
pudding, honeycomb
And the fruit not
forbidden,
And my eyes were
opened. Bloodshot.
Soul aflame with the
burning fire of sin,
Lust tingling the flesh now charred into servitude
Lust tingling the flesh now charred into servitude
With painful red sores
sprouting with a justifying glee,
I wear a garment of
discomfort
Acquired from the
embrace of passion.
"I have eaten of
the sour grape
Now my teeth is set on
the edge."
Would I taste of the
pudding,
Honeycomb and the
fruit not forbidden again?
Dishonesty may fill
the buds of my tongue,
Truth anchor on my
flesh plagued with pain and sores
Waiting to be
cleansed, liberated and cured.
Adeoye
ADETOBA.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
In This Labyrinth
Another
journey begins
To
rediscover
What
was not lost but buried
Buried
and doomed or saved
By
the kernel itself
Where
only beauty and light forever will be
In
this labyrinth
How
beautiful death is
For
him who goes forth
Never
to return
Death
the gift of birth
Birth
the gift of death
One
the transient opposite of the other
In
this labyrinth
Sharing
ignorance
In
comfortable deception
Uncomfortable
wisdom of unknowns
Knowledge
The
know
And
ledge
Of
growth
And
retrogression
In
this labyrinth
In
this labyrinth
The
theatre for all
Where
the elements are the stage hands
To
these creatures
Tying
and untying knots
Where
heaven or hell is hinged
As we race into time
Into
the unknown
Known
destiny foretold
Ifeanyi Okwosha November 2015
//////////////////////////////////////
SO I
MUST DANCE
In the menace division
You bring meaning to vision
You are selfless and faithful
You give me the beat
So I must dance
You bring meaning to vision
You are selfless and faithful
You give me the beat
So I must dance
You feel the hurt
But never allows the cut
Like a cord, you stuck to me
So I cannot let go of me
You give me the beat
So I must dance
But never allows the cut
Like a cord, you stuck to me
So I cannot let go of me
You give me the beat
So I must dance
You are greatly gifted in talent and hope
That not the many bumpy fate
Can deter your hope
So you forced mine to grow in yours
You give me the beat
So I must dance
That not the many bumpy fate
Can deter your hope
So you forced mine to grow in yours
You give me the beat
So I must dance
Chris
'N' John
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
SOLDIER ON
So
you choose to taste
Of the wine that made men cry
Should you be given
Overflowing measured pint
Soldier on! Soldier on!
Of the wine that made men cry
Should you be given
Overflowing measured pint
Soldier on! Soldier on!
Surely
with filled hearts
Of teeming bubbling gusto
Strangers lurk to nib
Of your courage, in the bud
Soldier on! Soldier on!
Of teeming bubbling gusto
Strangers lurk to nib
Of your courage, in the bud
Soldier on! Soldier on!
Swiftly
flying bullets and
Open air grenade earthquakes
Slyly plague a slumber
Of dreams, feverish nightmares
Soldier on! Soldier on!
Open air grenade earthquakes
Slyly plague a slumber
Of dreams, feverish nightmares
Soldier on! Soldier on!
Same,
the dawn you wake to
Of the Legion many fall,
Slain in a cold reddish blur,
Of shrapnel in Nyanya and Baga
Soldier on! Soldier on!
Of the Legion many fall,
Slain in a cold reddish blur,
Of shrapnel in Nyanya and Baga
Soldier on! Soldier on!
Sing
odes to friends unsung
Of wars unwanted, yet had
So, it begins!
Oh, it begins!
Of wars unwanted, yet had
So, it begins!
Oh, it begins!
IFEANYI
MBAH
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
30 MINUTES OR MORE
These signs
are not her wonders
These leaves
are not his present
They want
lasers and swords
Questioning
intentions
Testing love
Love of change
Love of self
Love at loss
Fighting to no
end
In anger
There is
Love of
friends
Love of
siblings
Love of love
Love for today
Love for
tomorrow
Thirty minutes
and more
Abiola Bonuola
///////////////////////////////////////////////////
HOMECOMING
With hands trembling slightly
She ends the call
So long ago
Goodbyes were said
And now to welcome
Anxiety gnawed at her insides
Trimming excitement
Into sweaty trepidation
What if?
Kemibon.
////////////////////////////////////////////
SO…MANY SOS!
Is this me, solemnly
preparing for the moment, excited nervousness becomes me
I am sonorously
serenading the audience, I watch you, watch me, secretly, silently
Soaking in the admiration, unabashedly
forgetting old lessons, lessons? I laugh
For I am way past
caring, my fall is somatic, automatic, so melodramatic
Is this you?
Reigning sovereign over my heart, you the victor and I
Finding my solace
in your loving? embrace, holding on… softly I sigh
Oh No! this can’t be
me, somberly, watching you leave, wanting to plead, knowing I won’t
Sobbing my heart out, drinking the sodium
of my despair, disbelief…disgrace
As you turn away, with
an unsoftened, inscrutable look on your face
Walking away, I have
fallen prey to a misogynist and
Now… this is me! so sorry and filled
with dread for what is mine to come I know
A broken heart for a souvenir and the inescapable
“But I told you… … so”
Marilyn
Maduka