HOMELESS DREAMS

[HOMELESS DREAMS]

For the internally displaced…

I

I wake up to the silent tonalities
Of homeless voices
I see dreams trudge along
In clothless rags
I watch weary people look out
For the rays of hopeless days

I feel my heart crying out loud
To save the desiccated agony of these helpless faces…

II

But this is my land
This is where I belong
This is where I took my first step
As a lovely child clutching to my father’s dream…

But this is my land
This is where I belong
This is where I took my first strike
With my hoe eating deep into mother earth…

But this is my land
This is where I belong
This is where I slept and dreamt
Singing in the language of the stars…

But… this is my land!

My
Ho –
me
Was
Here..
.

III

Too late.

I was drenched in the reality of my plight
The heartless ambiguity of my ‘home’
In one quick swipe of insurgency
I was given the suffix of a hell
‘less’…

Just like the gliding fish
Buried under the euphoria of curling waves
But,
who after a light lunch…
Woke up to the waves of boiling steams
The heartless ambiguity of ‘home’ –

Water and hot water.

IV

Homeless…
Like the birds flying over a turbulent ocean
With no trees around to make their nests.

Homeless…
Like the helpless fish
Gliding with no will in the cooking pot

Homeless…
Like a fugitive murderer
Running away from flashlights and hungry dogs

Homeless…
Like a swarm of bees driven from their skep
By aggressive bulldozers in their heartless rides

Homeless…
Like the bush rats
Smoked out of comfort by the hungry fire

Homeless…
Like  a lost explorer driven to a lonely shore
By the anger of a terrible tempest…

Homeless…
Like a madman condemned to an endless journey
By a heartless mind…

Homeless,
like me

D
I
S
P
L
A
C
E
D
.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Oredola Ibrahim, the winner of Inspiring Brilliance Foundation National Poetry Award 2012, believes in poetry as a tool for self discovery and ultimately, a potential tool for national transformation. His poetry delves into popular themes like politics, love and inspiration. Oredola Ibrahim is the convener of WhatsApp Poetry Contest, a periodic competition organized on the platform of “The Penclan Initiative” (www.penclan.com). He is a campus journalist, a student-entrepreneur and a web designer. He’s currently a student of the University of Ibadan. He tweets @platolaw and can be reached via asiaquad@gmail.com.

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