Darkness

                           I
And as I sat in pious meditation, listening
To the thoughts of the Universe, caught I was in a trance-
I saw the sun in her beauty pristine, softly glowing
As the flowers stretched to touch be face,
And men beach-bound basked merrily in ethereal rays;
But then something happened:
The Moon, Master of the Night appeared in the sky
And like a tombstone rolled in front of the sun;
Blinding God's eye; chaos!
The flowers like flaccid breasts drooped
And the children of men like troubled ants scattered as fear gripped their souls.
I watched in awe as Darkness stole Nature's beauty,
As Darkness made cowards of brave men.
It was at this point that a spectre,
Like smoke came forth from my nostrils;
Like a genie from a lamp it rose-

    It was Khalil...

                       II
And like a genie from a lamp he spoke, I know this
'Cause I have a genie in a lamp. "Greetings", he said, "Greetings".
Troubled by my vision, athirst for knowledge, I asked,
"Khalil, speak to me of Darkness, and how I may abolish it".
Unmoved by my impatience, he spoke,
     "He who seeks to abolish Darkness has
       within him the Source of Darkness,
       For he is like one who tries to fight the
         wind;
       Verily, is he not a part of the wind?
       For the wind abides in his lungs, and he
        in the wind.
       He who fears Darkness fears himself,
       For in Darkess are his deepest desires
        brought to Light.
       He who fears Darkness fears the Light,
       For what is Light but Darkness unveiled?
       Darkness can be likened to an egg, and
        Light the yolk;
       He who breaks the egg kills the chick.
       To abolish Darkness is to abolish Light,
       And to abolish Light is to abolish Life,
       Son of Man, even the Creator wallowed
        in Darkness
       Before He called forth Light;
       Why seek you to abolish life?

                         III
Defeated, disoriented, desperate
For the abolishment of Darkness I shrieked,
"Khalil, Khalil, is Darkness not the Father of evil,yea, the birthplace
Of all wickedness?"
With a sigh, he spoke,
       "The Godson entered this world
        through the gates of Darkness
       But was murdered in the Light of Day,
       Darkness was the midwife at the
         birthing of salvation on the cross,
       For only in the Dark did the Godson
        offer His sacrifice;
      Much good has been birthed in Darkness.
      Of all the wars that have been fought,
       how many
      Were fought in Darkness?
      Is Light not needed for evil to see?
      Even the evil that is perpetrated in the
       Dark, can only be wrought
      Upon the banishment of Darkness;
      Will the robber rob without his flashlight?
      Or the assassin without his night vision sniper?
      Darkness is the birthplace of good,
      For in Darkness do men dream dreams
       that propel them
      To do great things.
      Can the eye see without the pupil,
      Or the Moon shine without the Night?
      I have said before, Darkness is the
       birthplace of good;
      Teach all men of this Truth"

...And so I took a deep breath, and
Khalil with it.
Then NEPA took the light;
I smiled.

To my Coal-Coloured Cousins

Crushed squashed,  our souls
Munched, minds mangled,
Freedom strangled-
Kunta Kunte sings
Hakuna matata
             In chains as he works
On sugarcane plantations.

Luther Martin speaks:
"I have a dream,
A dream that my children
will not will not be judged
by the color of their skin... (sometime maybe)

But the Present, the Present,  it speaks:
"Coal-coloured American!
What do you do when
You see the badge,
When you see white sirens?"

"Say your (last) prayers,
I think"

A Pensive Song (For Juwon)

Where is the boy that shook hands with me
Two full moons ago;
My adopted brother whose blood
Spiritual courses my veins?
Where is the boy that shook hands with me
That flashed a smile;
So full of warmth,  it drove me insane?

Stop.

Mama Dele told me that Tunde told her
That Funsho told him that Lade told him
That the boy is dead.

Yepa! Iro ni!
Get thee behind me Satan!
Juwon shall not die but live!
No weapon fashioned...
No wea...

Mama Dele told me that Tunde told her
That Funsho told him that Lade told him
That the boy is dead;

Could this be true?
Could it?

**********************************

The campfire burns                brightly
And we,  jocund like children who have found
Chocolate island dance round the flames,
Deaf to the muffled wails of the firewood;
The charring, the charring
Then the ash.
The ash,  the ash
Then the Darkness
Then our feet having lost navigation,
Atrophied by fear of the Dark
Both remember;
        There was a flame,
        And ends, thus, our senseless sway.

Death, O Death!
You have plucked an unripe fruit
And I hope it burns your tongue
Corrodes your lungs, chars your thumb:

DEATH, I WISH THAT YOU WOULD DIE!
DEATH, I WISH THAT YOU WOULD DIE!
DEATH, I WISH THAT

                                      YOU WOULD DIE!

Consoled I am,
                   by only one thought
That our Juwon is heaven-bound.

Mosquito Net

Too often attacked we have been
By anopheles abominations
That roam black earth;
To suck, to suck and to destroy.
Born apyretic were we, until
we passed beside still waters-
Beside disease-giving
Vampire-toothed miniature hell hounds
Who sang merry songs in our ears
As we slept
And a straw put they
In our veins
To suck, to suck and to destroy.
We burnt incense in their honour
Thinking they were spirits
Of our ancestors who felt threatened
By Yahweh's Son and his doctrines.
We were wrong. Terribly wrong.
They only wanted blood. Nothing more.

So we gave them
What they wanted
Gave them one of their own-
We squashed him, and
His blood we gave them to drink.
Petty bastards!
They drank it all...
And still came after our sons.

So we gave them
What they wanted
Gave them one of our own-
We squashed him, and
His blood we gave them to drink.
Petty bastards!
They drank it not...
They accepted not our sacrifice-

The fool in a hurry
Drinks tea with a fork,
We should have bought
A moquito net.

Domestic Violence

Mother is limping; a guerdon
Of her encounter with Bash Ali,
Our father; the embattled one.
All lizards lie on their stomachs;
We don't know which one
Has stomachache.

We are men, we are strong
Let us beat our wives to prove it!
Mon amour, my heartbeat
How dare you talk to me that way?
We are men, we are strong
And we will beat our wives to prove it!
I am the head of the house,
Jesus has given me authority
Over my house.
Wife, you must obey my every word,
Wife, you must satisfy my every want.
We are men, we are strong
And we will beat our wives to prove it!
My fingers itch, I
Will scratch it with the bone of my bone.
I am hungry, I
Will eat the flesh of my flesh.

The lie aeonian:
"...And so they lived happily ever after"

Epilouge it is:
Cinderella,
your eyes are swollen
What happened after honeymoon?
Has the monster been awoken
The one who guised himself a prince?

Beauty has kissed the Beast
Again, but turn he will not 'nto
A prince:
He will turn into The Hulk
And pummel his wife to death.

Tic-tac-toe

We used to draw lines upon lines
Upon lines and fill them lines
with x's and o's
X's and O's that stood for the past;
The esexs and hoes that
Troubled our past.
We scribbled sweet words
At the ends of the paper:
"I love you", "I love you",
"You love me, don't you?"

Euphoric I felt, this love
Is sealed, this love is real
'Tis love I feel.

But one morning dreary
I awoke alone
In the ashes of passion
I awoke alone.

"I love you", "I love you",
"You love me, don't you?"
Tic-tac-toe; my lover is gone.

Catarrh

My nose wet bleeds mucus
Lemon-coloured sweetness;
A toddler's snack in times of hunger.
Nature's ice-cream flows unhindered;
God, He sneezed into my nostrils
Men, they think I caught a cold.
Nature's ice-cream hated by all-
Combated, reviled,
Declared wanted
By WHO.
Scientists working tirelessly
Mixing forming witching
brewing solutions
to staunch "my cold"-

But never have they ever paused to ask,
"Wale enjoy do you your snack?"