500 Naira
If you only knew what Five Hundred meant to me
you would weep at the thin, lost girl who arrived at your door
every Saturday noon
in Bulukuntu, to cook and clean and watch you play yor scrabble with your frinds
If only yu could see what five hundred would buy in the future
in the end of your life, broken and old without hope
and the little lost girl who remembered your kindness
when no one else was kind
you who gave me succour when no one else did
who endured me when no else would
I saw in your eyes you were tired sometimes
but you gave and gave and I an never forget.
Uncle I wont forget the 500 naira you gave
every Saturday in Bulukuntu
The years have plied up,
like dust in the dusty Maiduguri street
memories come and go, and people die
pain is always there, numbed by sleep
abut don't forget that flicker and kindness you showed to the girl who would bever forget
the five hundred naira note
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