ABUDU-BHADMUS OMOLABAKE
My little window has become my companion
The only proof there is a world beyond my deep agony:
The green field contrasting the dark hole I’m in.
My grief cloaks me like rain clouds.
Here, where joy once lived,
Echoes dead silence
And the wall of my hut
Closes in, choking me with blind sanity.
Now, I wear the robes of rags,
Condemned to a life of penury
And my beauty has turned sin
That I bleed of rejection.
The billowing wind whispers my fate,
It flows cold in my veins reminding me of how I fell for fantasies at the stream:
The same whispers of how our heart will be one
How we wished for ìbejì
How we offered the gods our vow.
The visions of our past come alive again before me,
Reflecting how I surrendered to him my heart, flesh, essence
All for the vanity of love
And now, narrow is the line between love and hate!
He left me to pay the price for a debt we both owe.
He sleeps endlessly in eternity
Leaving me in the wake of his family’s wrath.
My cheeks have turned hollow
And now I’ve turned a shadow of myself
And blessed with the curse of pity and shame.
Cursed be my feet for raking this terrible path of destiny.
I’ve turned a disease to society,
Left with half a heart and my bones rattle with insecurity.
Shoulders once thought to be friends now turn cold leaving me to
The thorny hands of pain.
My name comes with a hush:
An abomination to mention.
I scream death to the dead:
Death to the world that drained me of colours
Leaving me with black garment of a torn silks scattered at my floor.
Alas!
A rain bird visits with its flaps on my sill
Coming with clouds of hope,
Humming a song to strengthen my bones.
“Sarafa will live,
Help is on its way
Braze yourself against life’s storm
Woman of strength, lengthened are your days.
Hope again better days will come.”
And like an oiled hinge during Harmattan,
I lay my bald head against a pillow dreaming of my promised tomorrow.
ABUDU-BHADMUS OMOLABAKE
is a creative who expresses her artistic abilities in writing stories, poetry, drawing/painting, singing and spoken word. She is passionate about the African culture and hopes to bring it to the light. She loves helping others and spreading hope. She works with 24artbeats, an NGO. Her work has appeared in the Songs of Peace anthology. She also shares some of her poems on her blog: livingwords.home.blog. She is currently studying Mass-Communication in the University of Lagos.
1 comment
Wow… this is captivating. It literally drew me in, the poem came alive! And infusing yoruba; I love it! Well done!