AFRICAN DUSK

          AFRICAN DUSK                  

From windows of solitude,

I observe;

The solemn worshipper at the shrine Kneeling in veneration to stoic figures.

Africa!

Unfurled in the lights of dusk.

Across the street,

A church of worshippers

Aladuras in flowing garments Mad drums throbbing in maniacal frenzy

To ecstatic bodies.

In the neighbourhood

The shrill wail of a child

Solo thin

Cuts through the air

Answered by a mother’s soothing voice.

Hand in hand, a pair of lovers In cupid’s snares entrapped.

Perfume the air with kisses

My heart in envy bursts

For that which I do not have.

In the background 

A jungle of sounds

Nocturnal creatures 

Basking in the euphoria of dusk

Amidst mating cries.

In that place of echoes

Nightbeings in sobriety rise

Stoic figures in cloakless cloaks

Goods laden for the nightmarket.

The air,

Pregnant with sounds and beauty

Like the lines of the poem

And on this African dusk

All I have is my solitude. 

-Olumofin Subomi

A Poet Drowning

A Poet Drowning

A poet in denial

considers drowning

an escape into unfamiliar

places;

like secrets women

keep in coy surrender.

To the poet, poetry, like women,

is an innuendo caressing a body

falling apart -

so he keeps drowning

in the veil of deeper meanings.

A poet may rise like fire

from the fecund slums of Ibadan,

the red earth of the Congo,

the coal-tarred language of Kikuyu,

but this simple beginnings

must rise into monuments like

five-star hotels in Frankfurt

before he listens to the voice

that seams through

the fabric of the heart.

Until then, he keeps drowning

to be found in a bottle of beer.

Noah Oladele

A NEED TO BE HEARTLESS

A NEED TO BE HEARTLESS.

After my discovery in the third planet to the earth

Then I began to see things unusual

And many thoughts troubled my heart

And those things that are hidden become visual.

It was then I knew that there is a need to be heartless

Because there is one enemy you cannot overcome

And that will make you to be fearless

Like the pursue of bald-eagle in the compound

When all the tenants are around.

Human being tends to be warm-hearted

But the badass experience of life

Will make one to be non-compos-mentis

And that will make you to be cold –hearted

And your behavior will now be non-conformist.

There is a need to be aware of the fact

That those who claim to live by the truth of the past

Live in danger and die without the trail of a murderer

But those who discharge their responsibilities in lie and deceit

Live longer and are accepted by all and sundry.

My heart has groan in pain like the horning of the rail

And now mature enough to adapt to the dictate of the way

Where forgiveness is a sin and mercy is a taboo

And those who are fools before are now wise

Those who at peace before fight

All in the name of a need to be heartless.

        RAFIU ADURAGBEMI BARNABAS (WORLD BARNABAS).