SOLITARY MOTHER
OWÓLỌLÁ ÀJÚLÉKÚN
Solitary and pensive,
Aching, tired limbs,
Yet, buoyed by the sea,
And wave of needs.
She stirs from restless sleep,
To the caw of mother-bird,
To quell the harsh rain,
That shreds her girdles of hopes.
In her sorrowful space,
A shadow lingers,
Of one loved and lost.
She labours,
In friendship to the fields,
She embraces the rivers,
She markets every tree,
With lonely hands,
Reaching out for love.
She is a gold,
That gleams in furnace.
A water lettuce,
That survives the river’s threats,
To claim her lone fame.
TERMS & CONDITIONS
JIDE BADMUS
How do I
extract yolk of glory
from this shell of hell?
This furnace is fiery scary.
But if I am gold as I was told
I must burn & be born again
—refined by flames.
Life is a sinusoidal song,
a rhythm of seasons!
These waves
make masts tremble.
But I’m submarine
I dive in the storm
& negotiate
the terms of tides.
TRIAL
MARY ANTHONY OKELEYE
Peers,
Before your juries I stand
On crumbling spine,
Dismembered and stalkless,
Invoking mercy or silence
Awaiting your scowl
Till brightly you
Flash your teeth
In a promise
Of empathy, cast
Condemnation for
Nescience of
Anatomical composition—
“What did you read?” You ask.
“ _O ya stuff me_ ”. —
Out of the dock,
So led in solemn procession
Of atonement under
Your watchful eyes
To the place of abatement
Where my bloodless limbs
Will dangle from the ligature
Of your sentence…of my guilt.
COLOURS II
BAYO AKINNOLA
The yellow knife cuts the year into two
Indigo rain, spicy sun
Dark forests, plain field
Milk bourne and her brown chest
The blues of Antananarivo
The Nigeria’s green meadows
The beige safari of Kenya
White Nile and the stripes of rainbows upon Rhodesia
Lions of Teranga
Black star, Leone star,
Chipolopolo, Kilimanjaro!
And the crescent moon upon Atlas mountain
Come! Come dance,
She’s a lady with savanna beads on her waist
Come! Come dine with motherland
And have a bite of her lips
DEAR GOD
ADEPOJU TIMILEHIN
Dear God
You can hear the silence, right?
You can hear my shore
longing helplessly for the tide.
Dear God.
I have been trying.
I am tired.
I’m still here, trusting you.
I call my body your heaven
and my pulse is obsessed
to singing your praises.
HUNGRY PEOPLE
FORTUNE OMOSOLA
They no longer see themselves in a mirror,
Words make their head spin,
Their stomachs fall to the floor
They fight on all fours.
When they gaze at food, it disappears,
Their offspring are the sacrifice for the hungersnot.
Gold and silver no longer buy dove dungs
The giant ripper sits, waiting,
Till the last man is hung.
FELLOWSHIP OF A MEDALIST
PENTSUNAMI
I love to place a ribbon around my neck,
And raise a podium over my feet,
With congregation to sing,
Hymns and fade in psalms.
I love to pluck a star from the sky,
Rename it after my scars,
And tender it to sleep in a tat.
I wrap this body in tie and dye,
The only way to die an artist.
I get the feelings inks are poems,
When they spill – they sink,
Akin to a line from a jazz,
Hanging at the tip of your tongue,
Like a pendant on a chain.
Raise my feet on this podium,
Issue a medal to my neck,
Perched on pedestal of eternal dance.
MY MIND & AKUNGBA
OLADELE OGUNDANA
Battlefield
of fleeting thoughts,
swirling prompts,
strolling in motion.
Abode
of stormy sea,
whelming flood,
cauldron of emotion.
For three long weeks,
a dirge
sat upon
our wagging tongue;
tilting fluid,
drifted on our lobes,
ocean on our vision.
A ravenous beast
cast a shadow over us
black as a crow’s wing
where else do we go from here?
BURN
OLAITAN ADESINA
Burn it all up
Let it burn
Let flames lift a fiery middle finger
As they kiss the bastions of Babel’s tower
In the midst of chaos was the Earth born
Empires rise as temperatures soar
Burn it all down
Let it burn
Let smoke mount the air with two fingers
In victory over the citadels of selfish power
From the heat of war will our world be reborn
Kingdoms fall as friendships sour
Tonight,
Like orphans of a dead order
We will weep for what was
Tomorrow,
Like the fabled phoenix
From the ashes, we shall rise again.
WHEN IDIOTS BECOME RICH
AJIMISAN STEPHEN
When idiots become rich
They scurry out of reach
They think that their wealth
Is a corollary of their stealth.
Even though the wealth
Is from what they steal
They build hedges of steel
To conceal their shady deals.
An idiot is always an idiot
Who relies always on faggots
Even though he feigns to be zealot
Fated to die by mild riots.
Even the olo rat that mixes with grasses
To scuttle human traps and trespasses
Is by numerous human subtlety ensnared
Let alone imalaju rat
With no finesse to spare.
A GIRL IS A METAPHOR OF AN UNBROKEN SHELL
OBIANUJU OTTI
There are molecules of ions, each tiny particle a mighty nation
A girl is a vessel of burried bomb that exhudes fire and enlarge hips to be swayed
A girl is a garden where goddesses of fertility find solace
A body of grasses with sensual chlorophyll
Flowers of divers depth and emblem
A body where Gardenia signals purity
Bougainvillea is spread on an aisle that exhudes royalty
Marigold situates in the heart to indicate inesteemable value
And sunflower rests in the pupils causing dilapidation for the other gender
Then smiles are lips and lips are roses.
A girl is a coat of many colours
FORBEAR NOT WE
AMAMI H
This
convenient call
for forbearance,
from the palace corridor…
Since
he who calls
for equity
must
certainly, here, dined
with soiled hands,
can
the gold spoon
babies and
the
king’s ombudsman
strip selves
of
daddy’s privileges
so we all, endure together.
When
a call is made
for sacrifice,
should
it always be
the blood of the commoners?
This
convenient call
for forbearance,
from the king’ sycos…
BLACK
MAKINDE ADEBAYO ADENIYI
Olè! Olè!! Olè!!!
Petrol spattered
Strike the match!
Let him burn! A born brute
Bringing brawl, bruises and blood
Death! Death!! Death!!!
They chanted
No mercy
I saw violence in their vision
Venom in their voice
Stench of burning flesh, choking
Death, slow and agonising
Mercy took to flight
When the devil seized the wheels
Alas!
When it rained
Shea butter made fun of the
Salt, forgetting that
After the rain comes
Sunshine.
