NAIJA BLOG

 I never knew of hugs or bosoms of comfort I never felt your hands caressing my strong kinky hair But I knew of your words Unkind and cruel that haunted me like a ghost I knew I was ugly and was not much I knew I would find the home in chaos with screams and pain in my eyes and in my soul I knew I never had a home so I would search forever for one Mother Dearest now you try to hug me when we meet but I never knew how it felt to hug you and I cannot do that now Now you wish to laugh and talk with me but mother your words and your deeds belie your nonsense chatter you are the pain that seeks the multitude in my destruction like the two-faced Janus  I can never trust I sought you when I came of age away and safe from your rage to find out why But you would not tell me why a girl  could not find safety in her mother's arms when I sought your face from the turbulent storms, you laughed in delight for you thought  my end was near Now you hobble in age and you pray  fo...

I hide myself now From prying eyes and talking lips Hearts that have brought me sorrows Souls that have brought me no respite You weary me, friend finders Lover seekers I have no answers for your eternal quest Your minds are stagnated in the loop of want and desire Your thoughts dwell on the mortal And weary me I shield myself from you as I search within For questions and the answers and hopes and dreams And await epiphany Years have been lost In your furtive eyes Your hollow speech Your descent into mortality Your cheap desires I shield myself from you

 Aunty Jummai's house in GRA Was heaven to me It smelled of vanilla cake Frostind and fried flour dough You could be sure of cold kunun zaki And a thousand and one delights It held a trove of treasures, where we read And read and played and ate Aunty Jummai's house in GRA was one of delightful memories that brings to me a smile on my face and the fragrance of childhood to my nose. 

 They were the prize they said But I saw as a child How they discarded those they unwanted Pretty Toyin with her permed hair Crying over the aged bachelor in her boys quarter Beautiful Maryam The newscaster who was a corper Who had her things thrown out in the streets of Bolori They were the prize they said And held the power over tears And happiness Over self Leaving a string of sorrow and sadness Of pursuit and conquer Of lust and desire The prize of chaos

 There  we fell In the midst of their drama The desperate one  And the mischievous one Despair in her eyes Mischief and despair in his eyes We were the threats she screamed at him Pleading for love He laughed like one stuck  In a Sisyphean loop of infinite games We weren't ready for that We were there for the Mr. Biggs burgers And not the Shakeperean tragedy But I learnt from that day, Never to plead for love

 You could not wait To devour me,  Mr. Death Come and meet me At the hotel you said You drooled and drooled And I looked like a fool I lied and say yes I would see you and you smiled And waited but not for me For your death I saw your death Staring at me through the walls Of your temporary kingdom Aghast I said... I knew this man, met him once.  Pray, what killed him To which someone replied "Woman na im kill am" I prayed and thanked heaven for sparing Me from a painful death Or a painful life.

  I gave it to you,  Raw and red, broken and torn For it was so hard to find someone who  Liked chess And talked books You laughed at it Mocked at it "I was sowing where I didn't reap"   I waited for you To see beyond the glare of the eyes And the words that spoke vile and bile But you were the words  And you were the bile And you were bile So I took it back, broken and torn And soothed it up with the balm of words and deeds and the breeze of life And I forgot your words And your eyes And I loved and I sowed what I reaped Adieu bitter one,  Life is mine as well