coffin is the wife of grave
we met ours under the siege of darkness.
youth is a crime in my country. youth is the bride of dust.
Lagos is a cemetery of stars. a prophecy of fate
of filth. of loss.
behold our memories
rustling like dry leaves
in the summer of our shame
our lexicon grows horns:
lies: the thing between butter and bread that the eyes cannot see but tastes like heaven on the slab of your tongue
bullet: perfect synonym for love, especially when used with ‘dead’ and ‘blank’ (sentential realisation: the army pampered us with so much bullets. they fired dead bullets blank)
president: automated speaking machine (ASM). a zombie.
SARS: special armed robbery squad (noun). gag (verb). (in sentence: Nigerian youth constantly get sarsed by the authorities)
youth: lazy. curse. cuss. senseless. robbers.
dreadlocks: yahoo boy. irresponsible. thief.
tattoo: a piece of art that makes the police go into spasms.
Omidire Joshua Idowu
is a vibrant poet, editor, and social media strategist. His poems have appeared in Footmarks, Our Legacy of Madness, The Sky is our Earth: Anthology of 50 young Nigerian Poets, and elsewhere. He is the winner of professor Eruvbetine’s poetry prize. Reach him on Twitter and Instagram @page_adventure.