poetry – Chocolate Flavoured Girl

9/16

Like building a house on a sinking ship
Planting a tree on a buried land mine
Having for a watch, a ticking time bomb
Loving a ghost, and calling it mine

Love feels like coming home they say
I hate to agree, but for a split second it did
Feel like my homecoming indeed
Joyous return from lonely nights away

This love, akin to a sonorous song
It fills my heart, breathing life deep within
On it, all my cares and fears hung
Hopes and dreams; a new dawn to begin

Yet, tis all I have to show
For a love that I have indeed toiled
An endless bounty of naught
Despairs of an empty heart

My love flees like a thief in the night
I have no recourse, no claims to vengeance
What you sow, you surely reap
So I collect my harvest in silent tears

Once a lovely maiden, filled with youth
A thirst for life, love and laughter
She now bargains, pleading for meager mercies
Cast her not into the shadows of the forgotten

Forget me not my lover
Turn not your back on me
I fear I may wither to nothing
Should you take your sunlight away

She begs in desperation, fearing a life alone
Fearing a life without her lover
Her lover, who became the air she breathed
Her lover, who became the joy she had

What she sowed, she reaps
Violent begetting violence
What was not hers, she took
And now she calls another the crook

See her now in the marketplace and spare not a thought
She comes and she goes, a shadow of her own afterthought
A product of a love equally brightening and maddening
Culmination of guilt and regret, in equal measure

Cast her out into the streets, cursed to a life of solitude
Banish from your minds, the memory of her desperate pleas
But forget her not, and let her story serve as a lesson
Lest you look in the mirror to find her staring

Anticipation

the candle burns out

the oil in the lamps nearly dry

but still we wait

oh yes, wait we do

•

the sun sinks lower into the clouds

the day grows a little darker

our shadows, a little larger

but still we wait

•

the song starts to slow

the laughter, it slowly dies down

the crowd begins to disperse

we wait

•

the dust begins to settle

we begin to come up on the horizon

the skies get a little clearer

and oh we wait

•

the first drop, the first drizzle

the first shower

the first taste, the first look

the first fitting

•

the first day, the first time

the first touch

the first kiss, the first look

and yes, we wait.

Hope

I dream of a tomorrow bright and shiny, borne from a yesterday gloomy and bleak. I envision a future ripe with plenty, to quench the hunger of the past, sate this thirst I was born into. I see a time to come with joy and dancing, atonement for suffering and strife of days gone past. I see in tomorrow big, bold lights, to illuminate the darkness that rid my yesterday. I dream of a future with color and music, birthed by a silent past in greyscale. I envision a day to come with prosperity, and wealth in the most divine of senses, an atonement for the need and hardships of days gone past.

I look to a place beyond the horizon, green and flowing with life; healing, and resurrection from the ashes that mark this ground. I look to a place in the skies, vast, with beauty incomparable, growing from the seed of sacrifice in this small space with little to live on. I look to a place so close, yet so far; a dream so fickle, yet so real. A place where the real and the unreal mingle; a place where earth and sky collide. A place where divinity meets humanity. A place where royalty greets the common man in humble adoration. A place of liberation from the shackles of a time which must now end.

I look to a future beautiful and peaceful, borne out of the pain of yesterday, and the hope we had through it all.
(Photo Credit: Google search, http://www.ifreex.deviantart.com)

Blue

Sometimes I search

Sometimes I look

Sometimes I wonder

Sometimes I ask

Sometimes I worry

Sometimes I fear

Sometimes I question

Sometimes I blame

Sometimes I cry

Sometimes I hurt

Sometimes I ache

Sometimes I die

Sometimes I stop

Sometimes I lose

Sometimes I fail

Sometimes I mope

Sometimes I know

Sometimes I’m sure

Sometimes I hope

Sometimes I’m sure

Sometimes I find strength

Sometimes I carry on

Sometimes I can’t

Sometimes, I won’t

Sometimes it hurts

Some times I’m alone

Sometimes I sleep

Sometimes I dream

Sometimes I see

Sometimes I don’t

Sometimes I breathe

Sometimes I feel

Sometimes I choke

Sometimes I’m numb

Sometimes I live

Sometimes I exist

Sometimes I’m here

Sometimes I’m near

Sometimes I can

Sometimes I can’t

Sometimes I go on

Sometimes I can’t

Sometimes I ask, search, wonder, look

Sometimes I find, I see

Sometimes I smile, I hope

Sometimes, I break, I’m broken

Sometimes you see, sometimes you don’t

But sometimes I hurt, sometimes I cry…

African Poets: Wole Soyinka

Abiku

In vain your bangles cast
Charmed circles at my feet;
I am Abiku, calling for the first
And the repeated time;

Must I weep for goats and cowries
For palm oil and the sprinkled ash?
Yams do not sprout in amulets
To earth Abiku’s limbs.

So when the snail is burnt in his shell
Whet the heated fragment, brand me
Deeply on the breast. You must know him
When Abiku calls again.

I am the squirrel teeth, cracked
The riddle of the palm. Remember
This, and dig me deeper still into
The god’s swollen foot.

Once and the repeated time, ageless
Though I puke. And when you pour
Libations, each finger points me near
The way I came, where

The ground is wet with mourning
White dew suckles flesh-birds
Evening befriends the spider, trapping
Flies in wind-froth;

Night, and Abiku sucks the oil
From lamps. Mothers! I’ll be the
Suppliant snake coiled on the doorstep
Yours the killing cry.

The ripest fruit was saddest;
Where I crept, the warmth was cloying.
In the silence of webs, Abiku moans, shaping
Mounds from the yolk.
– Wole Soyinka

Ilekedi…

Three things I’ll remember about her
Three things I’ll never forget about this night
Three things I’ll forever ponder on
Three truths that I will never cease to grapple with

Her name was a mystery, like herself
Many have searched, albeit in vain, to find
Some say its the key to taming her
So she keeps it a secret; she locked that door and threw away the key

I didn’t ask for her name, I didn’t even think I would come so close
But she looked at me that night,
And opened up the deepest parts of my soul with those eyes
Upturning the dirt and ashes that had buried my secrets

Three things I’ll remember about her

The way she swayed her hips,
lost in her own designed ecstasy
The beads that adorned her waist,
sculpting her frame, undulating with her dance
The way she looked transformed
from mere mortal to revered deity

Three things I’ll never forget about that night

The way she looked at me, with eyes so beautiful,
yet rid with the sadness of a generation
The way the room faded away when she moved
as if it were just her and I locked in a battle of wills
The way her beads drew me in to her
holding me captive to her every twist, every turn

Three things I’ll forever ponder on

Why she singled me out, plain old me
instead of the usual patrons falling over each other for her
Why her movement, body, and soul spelled a sorrow
unlike any I’ve known; the kind that comes from fear
Why her beads danced around her waist
as if in a dirge, mourning a loss

Three truths I’ll forever grapple with

She was me, she became me, she is me
like a distant memory, foggy and dreamy,
of a past that was mine, a life I once lived
She was trapped; hiding in constant fear
I was trapped; hiding in constant fear
of who I was, who I was becoming
She held a secret, a certain power, and mystical force
in those beautiful beads that were my undoing
and in those beautiful eyes that told a thousand stories…

*Ilekedi: traditional beads worn around the waist by women for beautification or ritualistic purposes. Common in the African society.

African Poets: Dennis Osadebay

Who buys my thoughts

Buys not a cup of honey

That sweetens every taste;

He buys the throb,

Of Young Africa’s soul,

The soul of teeming millions,

Hungry, naked, sick,

Yearning, pleading, waiting.

Who buys my thoughts

Buys not some false pretence

Of oracles and tin gods;

He buys the thoughts

Projected by the mass

Of restless youths who are born

Into deep and clashing cultures,

Sorting, questioning, watching.

Who buys my thoughts

Buys the spirit of the age,

The unquenching fire that smoulders

And smoulders in every living heart

That’s true and noble or suffering;

It burns all o’er the earth,

Destroying, chastening, cleansing.

– Dennis Osadebay

Last Night

Like a tiny creature wrapped in a warm cocoon
A certain kind of bliss
One I had almost forgotten

Last night was a kind of heaven
A kind of high; intoxicating
A kind of calm; peaceful and serene

Last night was a kind of charm
A kind of magic; alluring
A kind of spell; consuming

Like a garden safely tucked in the heart of the woods
Flowers glowing in the gorgeous moonlight
A certain kind of tranquil
One I had almost forgotten

Last night was a kind of dream
Fading away with the darkness as the sun wakes the day…

Guest Feature: Yemisi A. Ikuomola (II)

MY FIRST LOVE

PART 2 A MINUTE OF YOUR DAY

I hate to bother you with my thoughts like this
But I just cannot help the many questions that pop up
Who else would understand and appreciate them
If not the one involved?
Why this coming back together?
How did it happen?
Was it premeditated?
Was it planned?
Who initiated it?
Were we too hasty?
Did we think things through?
Are the feelings mutual and genuine?
Was there any emotional coercion?
Was there any guilt trip?
Did we take the best course of action?
On my part, I wonder:
Was it so easy for me to be in again? Definitely not
But I could not resist the truth any longer
I had it buried for too long, just needed to admit it to myself
What is your perception of me?
Do you sense genuine emotions or an adventurous mood?
Did you expect what you got? Did you get what you expected?
What are your own true motives?
Are you desirous of a lasting relationship or just in need of company?
Do you mean all you say and write?

My answer? We both had longings long buried
Which time never healed and fate only had one option:
To earth them at the appropriate time
My heart is so believing and trusting
That I think it might be playing tricks on me sometimes
Or am I just plain naïve about the issues of life?
All I can think of is that I feel love afresh!
If it is wrong, then I never want to be right
This is just so wonderful!

Like a young lady falling in love for the first time
I want to experience all that I missed in my youth
Passionate love
Elusive? I think not
If I can feel the way I feel then I am capable of genuine love again
I miss you greatly, I miss you every minute of the day
I wish I could have you in my arms always
Alas! You are thousands of miles away
But I know that very soon
We shall be together again
And that one day we shall be united forever
Pipe dream? I think not!
Whatever the mind can conceive is achievable
IF the feelings are mutual.

What bond of perfection to have a life from you within me
To give life to another of you
Then my love will be fulfilled
If all this is not love
Then I dare say that the dictionary is yet to be complete.

You came back and turned my world upside down, inside out
And I am loving every moment of it
Thoughts of you and our tomorrow keep me awake all night
I no longer dread it, but actually look forward to it
It feels good to have a positive scenario to ruminate about
I don’t know about you, but I want to spend the rest of my life with you
If we are on the same page, what is to stop us?
I love you and mean it with my whole being
Never felt like this before, never expressed it like this before
Never more positive, never more forward-looking
Go on my Love, tomorrow will be okay
If we keep on believing that what we have found
Is indeed true!

You are my First and True Love!
Thank you for coming back to me.

First written in October 2004
Updated October 2014

Guest Feature: Yemisi A. Ikuomola

MY FIRST LOVE

PART 1 YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW

Like a young lady falling in love for the first time
I find myself longing for him
The sound of his voice makes my heart merry
His laughter elicits joy in my heart
I could listen to him all day crooning in my ears
I wish I could make every minute with him an eternity.

The joy of reunion after decades have passed
To see how little has changed in the feelings
In fact, they are stronger and more meaningful
See how human attempt at separation is foiled
By the simple nature of love
I wonder now how I ever let go of you so easily
Naivety I put it down to, now I know better.

But wait a minute! We should not be here
But the pull of real love is something
No human power can stop
Once again, my First Love
He says he loves me and wants me back, for good
I believe him
It is also important what I feel.

At last I know that I am capable of real love
I can feel love
I can give love
I can share love
I can receive love
I can be loved!
Love is real
I am only human.

The pain of parting is awful, it is indescribable
The lump in the throat cannot be swallowed
But parting at some points is inevitable, albeit temporarily
But parting so soon after the reunion is painful
But duty beckons on both sides, obligations await us
Out of sight but very much together in the spirit
Human emotions have no physical boundaries
I would not restrict mine, once bitten, twice shy.

Once again, the longing for his voice becomes an obsession
Love, lust, infatuation? Call it whatever, Love is my definition!
I never knew I could write a poetry of love
Tear after tear; toss after toss, sleep has become elusive
I pick my pen and paper as the words well up in my head
I cannot control the flow, I write, I write
It is so fulfilling to put your thoughts on paper
I hope he gets to read it one day.

My First Love, you will always be my only Love
The only thought that will keep me going
Is of when I shall behold your physical face again
To touch your face, to see you smile
To throw your arms around me, to wipe my tears away
To lay my head of your chest and hear you tell me it is okay
To hear the sound of your snoring deep in sleep like a baby
To cuddle you in my arms and watch you toss and turn
In absolute serenity, you nestle your head snugly
Knowing the one who holds you cares deeply
Then I know we find comfort in each other’s arms
I long for such moments everyday
The memories linger sweetly
I face another long, lonely night
But with lovely thoughts of you I will be okay

First written in October 2004
Updated October 2014