ADEPOJU ISAIAH GBENGA
(I)
Dear Son,
When the gods asked me who you were, I said;
You are like a hawk that flew to the land of doves
And when returned, became a dove.
Like a stranger;
When the Abiku’s child, Romoke, lifted her feet off the earth,
Your mouth opened like a crushed hut felled by the wind.
You looked like Sigidi, as night-children sneaked into your home and stole the ancestral god of our forefathers.
“It ain’t worth a dime,” you said and the walls of the village broke in tears,
The farmers hung their hoes and stayed in their compound until the flood of their tears soiled their farms and replenished their barns.
Our farm produce became lean and when we slashed our poor yams, we saw its eyes swollen like the lump of the Adam’s apple of a glutton.
The gong of the town refused to sound;
When beaten, it muffled like a mummified corpse:
It wallows in sorrow.
Son!
Haven’t you missed the nuptial tie ceremony of this land?
The heavy smell of gegemu filling the air;
The rising and falling of the bride’s wailing as several dishes are pounded and cooked.
Why do you choose to dress your wife like an embalmed corpse waiting to be buried?
Why do you dress like Esu Odaara himself that kills the infant at the presence of the Mother when you are supposed to be tying the nuptial knot?
(II)
Father!
Your ways are sin unto God, and as you file after idols and molded figures
Your hell is being heated seven times minus one.
Have you dreamt of a palace that smelt of purple and frankincense and myrrh?
Of a place where Amadioha cannot come with fierce lightning wiping sinners off this sphere?
Where I was!
The land is thick with life and when we walked, a sound repeats our steps.
Papa! I wish not to dwell longer in this hollowed pit;
Where I can’t touch the walls without the guilt of innumerable sacrifices clinging unto my palm,
Where the dust of the earth is full of treachery and misdeeds.
Where fathers who had laid to rest in their dungeons or caves have their share in the fire that burns even the dead.
(III)
Ancestors!
Ancient Fathers!
Merciful ones!
Forgive thy child who in ignorance had rendered blasphemy unto thy name.
Since when the white man promised my son the night of the golden stars, he had come with puffed up shoulders and had abandoned the honour of his land and had chased after the gods of a strange land.
GLOSSARY
Abiku – (according to Yoruba mythology) a problem child that returns into its mother’s womb after its early death
Romoke – Yoruba name given to females
Gegemu – a powerful alcoholic greenish, pea-like plant
Esu Odaara – devil
Amadiora – a fierce Igbo god of thunder.
1 comment
Wow, this is a fantabulous poem