A Whim to Lie!
Ogun, hear my plea,
I have a whim to lie.
Oh, Venerated one!
You boast a largeese of oceans
Yet choose to bath in pools of blood.
Ogun oooooooooooooooo!
The mighty man of valour,
Custodian of the sacred oath,
Keeper of sanity.
The mighty king of Ire.
He boasts a chubby wardrobe,
Yet, swagger down the street in fonds.
Ogun,the dreaded one!
It is you I humbly worship.
Who dare dab his palm on your sword in dare?
I pay my homage to you,
So, do not put me in turmoils for my whim.
I would lie when I come.
Ogun, tilt your most potent ear towards me,
Hear the sins I cannot mention.
Hear the truth that plagues my heart :
Bitter than galls.
How shall I mention our fertile soils to you?
How shall I tell you Ikoyi spouts legal tenders?
I cannot! Let me hold my peace!
I will hedge when I come.
Oh, Sango!
Mighty man in battle.
Do not roust your venom for my sake,
For I will lie when I return!
I would tell my sanctimonious lies!
Give me your words,Sango.
Vow to spear me for my holy lies.
Let Ogun alone be privy to this,
Vow to spear me should I tell the goings on:
Our maidens Are barters for bandits!
Obatala ooooooooooooo!
The dexterous god,
Maker of lifeless beings,
Do not admonish my lies.
They are nothing but holy lies.
Oh, ‘Yeye Osun,
Sengese Olohun Iyo, ‘
Foremost river goddess,
Custodian of virgins,
Queen of queens,
Purveyor of sumptuous fishes.
It is you alone I greet.
‘Iba’ for your majesty!
Foremost mother,
The truth in my heart will inundate you,
So, steel yourself for my lies!
To tell you our damsels bare their breasts for Bigger Brothers is more than I can say to you.
They have thrown the pride of motherhood to dogs.
These are facades of the truths I lack the temerity to tell.
Venerated gods,
You who set us forth:
On the darker part of the world,
On the hinterlands of the West,
On the hottest parts of the soil,
Forgive our trespasses
Though we err our trespassers!
It is the evil one,
The lone one,
Esu Elegbara,
The Evil one who feeds himself in a labyrinth-
Where the roads tangle.
‘Esulaalu Ogirioko’
The evil one who incites pandemonium in time of bliss.
Esu the hostile one,
The cursed soul.
He helps to make cases where there are none!
Esu Elegbara,please,do not hypnotize me!
I beg you with your mealies,
I place your palmwine in the labyrinth for you!
You have never known Esulalu
The damned soul.
The one who cries passionately than the bereaved.
The bereaved whimpers in silence,
Esu exacerbated his problem for him,
Weeps blood to inflate his worries.
Blame our evils on Esu!
It is he who brought evil to our holy hearts,
Made us profane.
He came to our sacristy and polluted our monks.
Ha,Esu Elegbara, I know you well,
I dare not incur your venom.
I know you, Esu!
The dreaded evil known as Latopa.
Venerated gods, I plead you forgive our evil,
Cast Esu to your furnace for us.
I would tell these lies when I come to report how the world fares!
A. A. Zeal, 2017.
FATHER AND SON
HE traipses in with a souring countenance
and glinting eyes
Having survived jeers and taunts of the wealth drunk
mates
He nurses the bruises of his bullied legs
‘Life has gone askew’, he bawled at himself.
‘The world has wrenched away from its roost and doused
While I was more child than now, the world finds peace with me
We used to smoke our candies and lollipops
We were fraternal with different twain.
We bath in dust side by side with love
And hatred finds its place beneath the soles of our boots .’
He comes away from his eavesdropping
To school the grudged hapless son :
‘Peace! Be still! Steel yourself from grim I plea
I have found a remedy to your woes.
At Better Days College!
You will no longer bandy with your betters!
There you will be gorged with love and clemency.’
Numbed and stupefied he looks.
‘ Why Better Days?
I have learn to love here!’
‘I had known that you might know no peace there
I had known that you flock there with your betters
People of higher race and grace
People of luck with less love for your people
People whose colour of their eyes makes them betters
People whose saves are bloated!
I only took a risk!
I knew you will find no love but lost.
I knew your meager twain will wane you.’
‘But why Daddy?
Why should all this be in being?’
‘The world has tilted scrupulously I tell you
You cannot know even full peace at Better Days College.
Not anywhere in the world.
Peace cannot romance with men as beast as they are!
Unlikely my Boy! Unsusceptible!
Less the day these classes are crushed
and made obsolete,
Less these colours of our skins are mere flesh
When men eschew their source and swim into one another,
Less that our worths make us not any better than our peers.’
I affirm :
‘Peace for men will be hatred!’
Akinmade Abayomi Zeal
Mail : Soyinkzeal@gmail.com.
Akinmade Abayomi Zeal is a Nigerian poet and a final year student of English and literary studies in Kogi State University, Anyigba, Kogi State, Nigeria. He can be reached at Soyinkzeal@gmail.com.