Home

Confetti.
Colored sheets of paper.
Tarpaulin
Left over blocks
Half burnt wood
Gnarled iron rods
Sand
Mud and pebbles
Old cans
Old tires and a rim
A car door
Three stereo cases
Three tree trunks
One bucket
Another bucket below the leaking roof
A beaten bucket
One and half tubers of yam
Half boiled water in a steel helmet
Memories of meals on empty stomach
Sweating shirts
Rough boots by the door
Wall clock, right time and broken face
Second hand ticks away
History recorded every second
Naked boy playing in the mud
Naked woman stretched out
Broken voices
Broken songs
Beats from broken bottles
Chorus.
Swallows, kites
Solitary nightingale by the rubbish heap
Lonely pup sleeping at my feet.
Home.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Will you hear me now?

I have calloused my knees
On earth, rocks and Persian rugs
I have calloused my forehead
On walls, frescoes and marble

I have sang alleluiah
The birds echo the chorus
I have counted beads
From decade to decade

I have grown beards
And dreadlocks longer than my waist
I have chalked my eyes
And rouged my cheeks

I have stood on mountains
And beside the oceans
I have walked around the Iroko
And painted the caves

I have sacrificed the young
And decapitated the beautiful
I have split blood
And splattered entrails

I have banished thought
And woven legends
I have hanged heretics
And burned their books

I have sought the whirlwind
And the locust
I have smashed homes
And uprooted street lights

I have sought Ogun's wand
And set fire to Amadioha's shrine
I have allied with the desert
And laid waste the rivers in the land

I have laid across the track
And borne your footsteps
I have sat with the dogs
And eaten your scraps

I have stopped the sun
And stayed the night
I have seized the rain
And whipped the wind

I have wailed in the night
And cried in the day
I have called your name
And counted the curses

I have kidnapped your children
And held your ancestors for ransom
I have blocked the roads
And blown up your pipelines

I have empaneled committees
And formed factions
I have held conferences
And rewritten constitutions


Will you hear me now?



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Will you hear me now?

I have calloused my knees
On earth, rocks and Persian rugs
I have calloused my forehead
On walls, frescoes and marble

I have sang alleluiah
The birds echo the chorus
I have counted beads
From decade to decade

I have grown beards
And dreadlocks longer than my waist
I have chalked my eyes
And rouged my cheeks

I have stood on mountains
And beside the oceans
I have walked around the Iroko
And painted the caves

I have sacrificed the young
And decapitated the beautiful
I have split blood
And splattered entrails

I have banished thought
And woven legends
I have hanged heretics
And burned their books

I have sought the whirlwind
And the locust
I have smashed homes
And uprooted street lights

I have sought Ogun's wand
And set fire to Amadioha's shrine
I have allied with the desert
And laid waste the rivers in the land

I have laid across the track
And borne your footsteps
I have sat with the dogs
And eaten your scraps

I have stopped the sun
And stayed the night
I have seized the rain
And whipped the wind

I have wailed in the night
And cried in the day
I have called your name
And counted the curses

I have kidnapped your children
And held your ancestors for ransom
I have blocked the roads
And blown up your pipelines

I have empaneled committees
And formed factions
I have held conferences
And rewritten constitutions


Will you hear me now?



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad