Life is a Crook

Life is a crook and though

you pour him drinks and fill his bed

with feathers and whores.


It’s the uneven face of the sky

it’s cloudy in Pompei as

fog sneezes over the city;

she bleeds rain there.

But our crops thirst and the squirrel’s nails blunt

From digging holes yearlong

here the sky is so clear and blue

to provoke the earth to dusty rage.


Somewhere, a man visits the rain-lord

another loops his only buba  to hang his neck

if only he knew the Morrow would mate flood

those seasons your barns swelled and yams

you baptized in red, swirling oil

now you grumble for the rains

have taken her wares to another market.


You’ve turned your womb to a slaughterhouse

of tiny men for the mothering hour hasn’t come

somewhere a couple eats cocoyam alone

without the murmur of kids.


Life is the sound of rain

beating on my zinc roof

The rhythm is taut and noisy

Like giants marching

In between, Calm peeps through

the torrent of noise so the honks of geese

and the flutter of sparrows, we hear again.

Though he has gulped all your ale

he’s never too drunk to not walk in

straight, sane lines like a pious drunk

on his last trip to the monastery.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Agbaakin Oluwatoyosi Jeremiah is a law undergraduate in University of Ibadan. Born on the 9th of April, 1994 in Ikire, Osun state, he’s an active pressman in the university community. His pen has been rewarded in both essay and poetry contests. He’s a two time finalist of W.R.R-organized Briggite Poirson Poetry Contest. Apart from his keen love for legal studies, he has burning passion for writing fantasy novels, poems, and on philosophy. Battle Scar, a novel about the Biafran war was published to his credit on the top online forum site, Nairaland in 2013 and it received a wide read.

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