I’m like a broken Nokia 1100 phone – they no longer make parts to fix me. I am a badly, broken person, – at once a child lost in the labyrinthine landscapes of my head, and also a malformed adult cast away as an infant, and fated to wander the wilderness of loneliness until the twelfth of … Continue reading Places I will never be to
I can’t write. The words are there underneath, bubbling, frantic. But somehow, they do not find a way to be said or written. Maybe because these days, I feel less of a need to tell a story, and more of a desire to weep. I can’t write. Last night, I read about the El Nino … Continue reading I can’t write
Ufuoma, In our younger years, when we got our textbooks missing, We cried home, accompanied by the pain of losing something so Ours Because we lived in a strange new world were every other thing we wanted was someone else’s. We cried home, and wished and sometimes told mommy…for relief. But today, Ufuoma, today…. That … Continue reading No more death
We sit by the door, waiting to hear some brassy footsteps stomp down to our place We sit and wait and count fears for minutes But silence sweeps down the halls and sneaks under the door to embrace us There are no footsteps… We wait And in the meantime we decide to laugh with abandon, … Continue reading No scribes, yo!
Today, I stroll along the mud road, Letting my hands lazily pass over the ruddy weed stalks And looking down the road that dances on, hiding the next turn with an overgrown chock Like tomorrow, hidden and thick with stems of hopes- But today, I surrender to love and grief Wave a white flag, dump … Continue reading Love forever, maybe.
Leave it all and walk away[1] I will, vainly, in the wind sway Not free, not looking on from yesterday: It’s the pain residing in your heart, Which was absent at the start But by my savage hurt grew in it Must you be freed from. Leave it all and walk away Take my … Continue reading Walk Away
My life is like the harmattan’s mist That crusts and dries all layers touched While blocking sight beyond the here But hanging untouchable to fill the void My life is like the coiled spring Energy brims through its bends and loop Yet held in place by a force greater Still watching, waiting for time … Continue reading Versions of a Life
There will be looks –[1] Adoring, Lusty Unsagged by time nor chance There will be kisses – Sweet and heady Like well-aged wine Hands too will be held – Fondly, Fiery The elemental touch of souls Daring caresses will be stolen – Cradling, Clinching Worthier than the world Yet will none … Continue reading Unequal
I. Two things to tell you; two quick things, that’s all. See, the first is about shamelessness. About being invited over by an unfaithful girlfriend to spend the night, and then being refused the merest of touch or kiss through the night. And you know you are a cultured one, you never seize what isn’t … Continue reading How to Lose your Pride
“I’ll give you the brief version. My parents had 4 children and we were all devoted, fervent Christians; but our lives were not better than those who were not as faithful as we were. Two of my siblings died before they were 18, the other – a girl is a drug addict and a streetwalker. … Continue reading Conversations II: On the Broken Road [2]
What would my service year be like? I asked myself as the Marco-Polo Bus raced off from Lagos to the Northern state I was posted to. The journey began early in the morning and in my rush to leave home on time, I had not done a proper devotion; a quick prayer was all I’d … Continue reading Conversations II: On the Broken Road [1]
Dear Agnes, Come home. I’ve left the lights on, like you always insist we do when any of our family was not home yet, and we were waiting for them to return. Come home. I made your favourite dish –Chestnut and Pork noodles, and I minced the pork into those bulky pieces you always wanted … Continue reading Come Home
Yesterday, as my coach pulled away from the station, The man who sat by me scribbled in his notepad: ‘Tragedy is a long distance runner That we sprint away from.’ And I wondered if he was an omniprescient life form, Camouflaged in an old man’s body – Because I had just dashed into that bus … Continue reading Running Away
The girl in the green batik dress Would stand every evening at the yard To watch the yellow smoky train rumble by And wave at its distracted passengers. The dress was faded and had a white lace fringing And she’d put a red hibiscus flower on its chest But she wasn’t as beautiful as the … Continue reading Trainspotting
Before the Eid, the days become cloudier; and like the schoolchildren, the sun takes long breaks. Rain pours on in those days, the kind of rain my mother used to call the lazy rain. Streaks of it dribble slowly down for long hours, and form large rivulets on unpaved red-dust roads. The sound that accompanies … Continue reading Hope is a thing with feathers