MY NIGERIEN FRIEND AND HIS STUBBORN SMILE by Agbaakin Oluwatoyosi

MY NIGERIEN FRIEND AND HIS STUBBORN SMILE by Agbaakin Oluwatoyosi

My Nigerien Friend and his Stubborn Smile

 

So because you're not glued by blood

mere haemo-bond,

you shrug at the news at 8.

You say there are no worried wrinkles

on the forehead of the cute newscaster

who brings bloody news

from Potiksum, only in a jiffy;

about dying babies in overcrowded IDP camps.
 
 
 
 
 

But would you blame her,

Her tear gland is a dry well.

The corporate duress screams

"Shed no tears, show no emotion!"

They say Oprah Winfrey

divorced her own fetters on the desk

of the same corporate duress.
 
 

But I say “shed no tears

to know the pains of these orphans-

tenants under dirty bridges.

You must first enter the parlour of their grief,

and burn in the kitchen of their memories.

You'd see, the only fire there

is that of loved ones

burning with bombs.”
 
 

Don't be fooled

by their clipped mouths,

for when anguish is excessive,

It castrates your tongue.

We're one big family

separated only by our indifference.
 
 

I once stumbled on a new relative:

A Nigerien lass, tugged at me

Her hair curly and shampooed

by extreme sunlight,

her bony finger tore my new Designer shirt;

at first, I was enraged,

but then, that ugly hole led to a map

that led me to a Kingdom of families.
 
 

A raconteur told me

“no child is fatherless.

Are there not too many men

to go round?

But love is enough

to check against the kerfuffle in Chibok,

and the searing screams in broken homes.”
 
 

“You do not mend dying homes with bricks

but another bit of love.”

He said.

Home is not only where you go at nights;

it is also the stubborn smile

on my Nigerien friend.

 
 
 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Agbaakin O. Jeremiah, an aspiring poet and campus Editor reads law in University of Ibadan.
His works have graced several anthologies including Briggite Poirson Anthology and are forthcoming onThe Niyi Osundare @70 Anthology, Irawo Anthology,  etc.
His other publications feature (and forthcoming) on Liquid Imagination, Antarctica Journal, Wagon Magazine, Sentinel Literary Quarterly, Kalahari Review, Praxis Magazine, African Writer, Sub-Saharan Magazine, Pulse Nigeria and elsewhere.
He was a shortlisted for 2016 Dwarts Poetry Prize.  He also won the maiden edition of Ogidigbo Poetry Contest, University of Ibadan;  and was also a six-time finalist of 2016 Brigitte Poirson Poetry Contest.
 
 
 

My Nigerien Friend and his Stubborn Smile

by Agbaakin Oluwatoyosi

OF A BROKEN HOME, IT IS

OF A BROKEN HOME, IT IS

OF A BROKEN HOME, IT IS!

Of a broken home, it is

that happiness has absconded

that love, once were

that love, never is again

that what fascinates the heart become strange.

Faces become strangers and the heart becomes helpless.

 

Of a broken home, it is

that a child wakes up with pain in the heart

that there is a chattered dream

that there is divided love shown to him

Waking up to the call of life

He is reminded of the lost bond.

 

Broken Home!

Broken Home!

 

It is a burden in the heart,

As a child he wonders,

It was sweet from the start,

there was magic in every moment

and the stories of the heart melted.

Was it of lost or not properly made decision?

 

There had been a song

A song that a besotted lover has come to the door

The creation of union and later despair

Happily, the wheel of a new family is taken,

Couples filled with heartfelt joy, promises and oaths

 

There were promises that there will be devotion

A longing desire to be together

But time past, days have been and there’s lost in passion

What a turn the story has taken

What a change in dare need

What a hole in the heart the once delighted union has brought

 

Of a broken home, it is

that as a child he is left to face the world alone

that as a child, he feels not, the love of having parents

that choices are hard but made alone

that as a child he asks if there is need for marriage in the first place.

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Aremu Abiodun A. is a graduate of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, where he studied Accounting. He is in constant search of knowledge and loves the pen.

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