Imole Olusanya

While flying over you, weakling,   We saw you — with your fully empty head,   Harbouring the thought of superiority.   We could have looked away;   We saw one of yours, bitten by a snake,   Writhing in pain, no help in sight.   We could have helped him;   We saw you bathing in a room with no roof,   Scraping the dirt outside, while the inside remained clogged.   We could have looked away;   We saw your neighbour selling your son,   The same son you declared missing days ago.   We could have foiled his plans;   We saw your leaders feasting with the culprits,   The same culprits who disturbed the sea.   We could have frustrated them;   But lo,   And behold —   We saw one of mine, wings broken,   Sprawling on the dark brown earth.   We saw your sons and daughters watch,   With faces ...

  Pot besieges charcoal Charcoal rages Pot is heated. Egg attacks water Water seethes Egg boils. Trash frustrates fire Fire flares up Trash burns. Flour invades oil Oil fumes Flour is captivated. We order our minds Our minds rebel We wail.

Beloved brethren, Look at me trying to better my life Exposing my delicate skin as fair as the moon, While it is ready to depart the sky To the noon angry sun, making a living, Begging like a mendicant without a begging bowl That people may take a look at my unlucky wares Time used to be walking on slippery floors But now it is limping on slippery sloppy floors. Beloved brethren, Look at me now expanding my coast, With many heads at my beck and call Cain and Ahittophel like weeds had sprung up in my beautiful garden and I had separated them from the soil beneath I am making merry but Time is no longer treading on boggy ground It is now in possession of metallic wings.

  I have eaten cheeses the softest cheese; I have eaten nuts the hardest nut; I have eaten sweets the sweetest sweet; I have eaten biles the bitterest bile; I have been given a couple of packages; the wildest squirms and the loveliest tickles; the half-moon sometimes remained stable in my sky while the full moon played hide and seek; the cheerful sun made me want to swear and the sorrowful sky’s tears foiled my plans; the kind light gave me a ray of hope and the sinister darkness comforted me best; I have had a bit of all they had had a bit of all; these bits swallowed them I swallowed these bits.

  Nutty in he went berserk like a bull gored the tall poked the short. Sweet out he glistened with his glitz bowed to the old a belly laugh with the young. Like water dabbled in unstable guile like a chasm covered with a golden flannel attractive hoax. Man eye cool muddy inside maniacal master of words benighted fellas believe he is benign.