Our songs are fading I’m almost forgetting the steps to our favorite dance Our voices are losing their depth I can hardly hear your soothing breath Ever since I left our land In search of that Oyibo money You’ve lost that your wantenten love for me Remember all things we dreamed Our young love was…
Melanin Queen
Her hands by her side Head down Shoulders dropped and eyes fixed on an unknown prize She snails by in fear Fear of pointing fingers and heart breaking laughter Those words like a butcher’s knife swims through her melancholic melanin skin She wonders if Odomankoma (God) painted her in haste She has blood for tears…
L.I.F.E.
Life’s like living just at the edge of a knife Incredible, yet most times one’s choice is not counted Fear, one’s likely to succumb to; courage’s rarely remembered Evidently, life’s not how long you live, but how well you thrive Life sometimes wants to be a dictator It can twirl and whirl without one on…
Looking Forward
Hanging on small dreams the year folds itself in the tired sunset like a mimosa leaf It murmurs and screams new names old promises lies retold at this same place where songs are set on the loose in unplumbed laughter and tears we lay wreaths of frustration with no other option but to see hope…
Stank with Sweat
The brave face I wear is never washed It stinks with sweat my mother’s and mine She taught me how to put it on to fit my wobbly bones to be the face that you would know My brave face has a smile it lasts for thirty seconds and plays back after a minute It…
Black List
merge discrete metals to smithereens, blacksmith who ain’t black and don’t smith Black Africa a golden ring with a diamond/ a diamond ring with a golden rim? I am Black not because I am African Black is what I feel an explicit soul speaking lingo a never melting candle lighting deeper character Africa is my…
The Searching Cheats
Whirl of the wind sing decades of familiar tunes Encroaching voices of old whispering stories untold Cold the breeze our bodies freeze The Misplaced Birds they wail they say “We have lost our way” We are to show them their way We? We point They screech, “Where?!” We point again And again Then we tell…
The River
The river The unlimited water The beauty of nature Dark in the night, blue in the day but am colourless How well i have been shaped How soft I have been created Bigger than water, but water in smaller quantity I consume smaller things like pin, but carry bigger things like ferry Am welcoming I…
Pain: Who Am I?
Pain too has got beauty The beauty of pain is healing When healing comes Pain is not remembered Pain is not felt Pain too has got depth The depth of pain is lesson When lesson comes Pain is remembered Pain is felt Pain too has got malice The malice of pain is death When death…
Lip Prayer
Your lips are mine and mine are yours. May my lips forever glorify and honour you. May my lips be truthful to you. May my lips calm your blazing brow and bring healing to your aching muscles. May my lips mop up your tears. May my lips dry the sweat of your toil, from your…