by KREATIVE DIADEM | Aug 11, 2016 | POEMS
SEPIA
Journeying through Abeokuta one morning, a fleet of motorists sped out of the jam and soaked the air in reckless dust. An hour later, I came across a suicide scene: a silent woman wavering on the bridge.
A dawn of dim feathers; the road spat
Loud, a new mist of robot chaos
Where limbs were groves of lust, rouse
Beneath throngs of screech and curse
A faint dark in the wind, not voice-froths
Whom the morning had made all one with the soft
Receding shadow, stale shafts of night
The highway split is rounded by dwarfs, double-tiered
And strange procession on the flick of time
Offers a brown-rimed brew—of a lone sheath freed
From presences nocturnal, brown-eyed, brows brown
Shaped by the saddened hour. The light awaited harvest
Of the winding breeds when air was brown,
Brown as furrowed bricklayer beard shrivelled off
The brown-wings of the sun
Brown season it was—nostril
Draws breath in dew-wet ash, eternal to the soul…
Eternal to me comes the brush of feet
In sweet sprint of gore-shone death,
Sepia
Photo credit – Pelumi Kayode
But it arose—
A strange image, when yet I saw
Sudden form at the haze
Of death’s brown consul, slouched
Despair of moth-plagued fur at embrace
Of the lingering guardian trough, silent as the world
And in that moment broke her tear of libation,
The brown suds of her heart. A racing cloud
Sunk her chin, for death she had known
First reaper of the dust to time’s scorn,
Pale-eyed of the blurry dome… yet such
Startled pause at the hem she knew
Now the trench teems with grief,
Joyful rite from the vicious deep
Brown was I, then, witness though
I spied the world through her eyes,
A human will indifferent to the hour’s passion
Shrunk in my ears, rose rueful
The imprecations of all humanity…
Woman, you must stretch out
Like the sky. And shred your soul
Against the brown belly of the morning river
Postscript: a poem which illustrates the tragic and fragile paradox of human survival in the spectacle of a suicide scene.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Oyin Oludipe lives and writes in Nigeria. He is the recipient of the 2013 WRR Poetry Beacon Prize. His poetry, essays, and reviews have been featured or are forthcoming in Radar Poetry Journal, The Guardian, Afrikana.ng, Africanwriter.com, Arts and Africa, Akewi Arts House, The Provo Canyon Review, The Bombay Review, Image Magazine of the University of Ibadan, and others. In 2015, he was a judge for the Green Author Prize, a literary award for young unpublished poets in Nigeria.
by KREATIVE DIADEM | Jul 13, 2016 | NIGERIAN POEMS, POEMS
NIGERIA, HOW FAR?
Nigeria, when did your beauty,
Doused in rarity and clement grace,
A feast to the captured eyes of suitors,
A muse to the enthused voices of minstrels,
Become the protagonist of tales told
About remnants in the bowels of yesterday?
Source: www.bellanaija.com
How did your wild flames of fame,
That burned through the ears of the wind,
Across the silent oceans and restless hills,
Encapsulating the world in feverish awe,
Get quenched by the waters of corruption
Within the infant years of your freedom?
How did your foreseen blinding future,
A halo of distinguishing lights,
With the songs of angels in your eyes
Heralding a glorious tomorrow,
Turn to a perilous reality of gloom
And the plight of a defeated old hag?
I am the child of the night
Borne of the darkness of your bosom,
I am the cry of the earth
Bleeding out shrieks of your damning sins,
I am the crying child, probing, asking,
“Nigeria, how far?”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kanyinsola Olorunnisola is a bibliophile who believes in the power of literature as a burning sword to tear through the curtains of darkness which becloud the society. He has been published on several sites and anthologies. He has had the priviledge of clinching a few literary awards in his quest to influence the world through the might of his pen. He is the brain behind the SPRINNG Literary Movement.
by KREATIVE DIADEM | Dec 11, 2015 | NIGERIAN POEMS, POEMS
The Àkùko gàgàrà bears her gossips from town to town
Gossips of me being nothing but a greedy clown
The rat at home tells it to the farm rat and to the squirrel
Even the Irúnmolè informs the ancestors of our quarrel
This woman that I married was once sweet and delightful
Her hourglass figure and fair face that looked so beautiful
But now, the roar of a lion is nothing compared to her intimidating tone
Chai! Mama Déró’s words are quick and sharp — cutting into my very bone
The talking drum of Àrèmo murmurs something about my manhood
My own friends and relatives are afraid to visit me in the neighbourhood
They are not even sure if I am the true son of my Father, the great warrior of Ìjèbú land.
My God! I wonder if my manhood is still intact.
Mama Dero
Mama Déró is a terror to all — to the Chiefs and even to the Elders.
She once tried to poison me but the Lord was my Shepherd
The old women shake their heads at me when they see me pass
I live under the tyranny of a woman called Bashòrun Gaa
Kai! I married trouble. Perhaps I was under a spell
Perhaps she was an angel of Lucipher from the pit of hell
Her fair skin that glowed in the dark hid her true colours
I actually thought she was a woman with learned cultures
Aso-òpá mewa, fifty gorodom of epo-pupa
Forty-two tubers of yam and two cows, she asked for her son’s birthday
Haba! Kílódé? Is it a sacrifice to appease the gods?!
Where does she want me to get the money from?!
In fact I wonder if Déró is truly my son or a bastard
O jìgbìjìgbìjìgbì! I cannot even send my own son on an errand.
“Don’t kill him for me,” she says, “Go and get it yourself.”
Egbàmí kè! Can’t I send my own son on an errand?
Oh! I should have known Mama Déró was not a saint
I should have known when she cursed the deaf man that lives down the street
I should have known when she agreed to marry me against her Father’s wish.
Little did I know her father was only trying to warn me that his daughter is a witch.
O wretched man that I am! Who shall save me from the tyranny of Mama Déró?
P.S. Symbolic characters: Mama Dero represents the Government, the wailer represents the people of Osun state, and Dero depicts the economy of the state.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
OLUTAYO JOY OWOJUYIGBE is a 500L medical student of the University College Hospital, Ibadan. She believes in immortality via writing and loves to write about mysteries. She is currently working on her first novel.
by KREATIVE DIADEM | Nov 30, 2015 | NIGERIAN POEMS, POEMS
RITUALS
The rain comes,
clouds heavy here
but rainbow is missing.
Merger of shoddy elites
occupants of floors in
assemblies of nation’s houses
sited on national rock.
Postmen of economic issues
servicing to occurrence
scarcity of resources,
for whom we produce.
Source: Internet images
Abandon citizens
to tears of blood
rainfall of sorrow
enslave minds – sycophants,
exertions Earth gold futility
vanity upon vanity.
The rites proceeds in terms
Poverty,
Education,
Insecurity,
Projects of politics
won by thumbs signatures.
Sits in dark corner
by wall of defence
in exile of tormenting pasts
into petition of hopeful future.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tola Ijalusi is a native of Ado Ekiti, resides in Ibadan, Nigeria. He writes to address certain issues in the society.
His poems are published on various literary journals and magazines such as PIN Quarterly Journal, Tuck Magazine, The Poet Community, Lunar Literary Poetry Page, Literary Vox etc.
He was also featured in the 2015 31 Days of Poetry on EGC CREATIVITY.
by KREATIVE DIADEM | Nov 19, 2015 | NIGERIAN POEMS, POEMS
THESE WORDS WILL PROTECT US
These words will protect us
when the children of doom
appear at our doorstep
with message from Iku
on moonless nights of peril.
These words will protect us
when journeying missiles
tell tales of hastened mortality
on serene battlefields.
These words will protect us
when neighbours turn minstrels
that sing with livid tongues and teary gongs,
of Boko ruffians; miserable mindless machines
in the hands of political puppeteers.
I say, these words will protect us
when promise of willing virgins
makes men deaf to the sound of logic
and turns jolly streets into
sites of macabre massacre fest.
These words will protect us,
be our shield and solace,
our anthem of prayers,
custodians of our sanity
against these louts of terror.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kanyinsola Olorunnisola is a poet, essayist and short story writer. He is currently studying Philosophy at the University of Ibadan. His works have been featured in national newspapers and an international publication. An unrepentant idealist, he believes in the power of words to change the world.
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