Roadside

(after Praise Osawaru)

while I await the Uber driver like a sinner
who waits for salvation in God’s house under the scorching sun
my eyes record two scenarios at the roadside

one: flies feasting on a fallen fruit — apple
It is a win-win for the flies [a privation for the mother tree] maybe we only fall sometimes to give space & move
to the next version of ourselves but who can say for sure?

a message pops up on my phone: you have 5 minutes to get down here.
maybe my boss only mean to say 5 minutes to fall before I fill your space
but who can say for sure? no one
not even the Uber driver who arrives late
sorry, I fall behind the time.

two: two people. four people. a crowd forms a semi-circle
round a girl. blood streams out from her nostrils. apples roll out
from a bucket beside her. she’s not breathing again. Ah! Check again
she’s not breathing she’s not breathing she’s not…

maybe her soul only falls away to create a space for the next young teen
to hawk the street. but who can say for sure? no one
not even the mother who laments she’s the apple of my eyes.

SODIQ OYEKANMI

is a young Nigerian poet and thespian; a student of the University of Ibadan, where he currently studies Theatre Arts. He enjoys writing poetry as he sees this as a therapeutic creative outlet. He is a hopeless romantic. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Black Youth Magazine, Pigeonholes, Eve Poetry Magazine, Kalahari Review, Echelon Review, Crown Deserver, Praxis Magazine, Brittle Paper and African Writer Magazine. When he is not reading or writing, he is listening to Rilés and Taylor Swift’s albums. He tweets @sodiq_oyekan.