Rustling Grass

Not even the dreaded woodlands can make me this frigid tonight

Eyes shot, ears raised, heart beating like festive drums

The horrid fear of the known, ached pleasure for the familiar unknown

The certainty of what to come, the mask neatly placed on what I sense

So close I feel the scent of it, yet my hands cannot reach its edges

Through the windows of my mind the truth to me slowly unfolds

With precision sharper than the samurai sword my doubts had me

Will it be the oak tree that will fall? Or the rise of dry lands out to the deep blue?

Queries that circuits my curious mind from dawn to dusk!

Should I take off or simply slide away into the night like an owl?

The voice I hear are close to home, once I danced to these eccentric tunes

Over the horizon something glides towards my shaky steady feet

Transfixed in my perfect confusion and overwhelmed with exhausted hope

Yet, there is still this painful melodious rustling of the grass!

Omo-Ekun, Ilu-Nla

April 12, 2017

Joó na tán

14 Years A Sinner

Oh heavens! forgive me for I have sinned

To the sacred crescent I come with my bag of wrongs

I have stolen, cheated and stabbed my 'friends'

I have dug a deep hole in the back of my rivals

For those I love I plundered the ivory treasury

For those I hate I became a knighted by the emir

A worthy compensation for the Ijmag agenda

The desert written script for my hallowed crusade

Oh the sweet gate of al jannah! To thee I match for votes

Visit not on me the sin of fourteen moons away

Hands, feet, mouth and sacred members I have washed

Please make this tinge be gone at once!

Oh the roofs I have to lift for the rain to strike

My heat sinks just thinking of how hard it was for him

Please show me the graves of those gone to rest

For peace their Epitaphs I will re-write in Gold

Shackles surely will fit my wrists walahi

If only they know how much the counsels cost

From high to supreme I dragged our rectitude

Only to be told my appeal will get a better chance with God!

Now my dreams to rein is about to be plundered

Nightmares of the monster called USSA

Shivers from the faces of Aluta I slaughtered

Oh! that heaven will grant me sweet rectitude

Deliverance from 49 sprites that daily torments my peace

                                                      Omo-Ekun, Ilu Nla.

Our Baale is a Learner

Today I did the unusual

I sat waiting to be told on NTA some real stuff

Little did I know I was in for the usual?

Baale never cease to thwart walahi

Once again Baale took the doubters to the cleaners

I am a learner he exclaimed! And so what?

I remember Baale’s coronation

Dancing and wriggling of waists that now lies in waste

Baale’s wife a true spectacle to behold

Her ways with words, even the ancestors wouldn’t dare

Now almost four seasons we still battle with masquerades

But wait, Baale will learn on the job!

Surrounded by many tale tellers Baale declares

No Baale can learn like I do!

So Baale how do we find the missing village pots they asked?

Lets the oracles in the next village help he declares

To Baale, tears and blood should be flow like a river

The second coronation party will not be postponed!

With fear I received the news of the impending visit of the masquerade

But wait, can’t the Baale order the village hunters to town?

Why can’t the palace guards keep the palace jail securely fastened?

It's two weeks and hundreds of precious village pots are still missing?

Why has the Baale’s wife taken up the job of the hunters?

Oh…..how did I forget…our Baale is a Learner!

                                                                           Omo-Ekun, Ilu Nla!

Under the Umbrella

In the rain we have wept for years

Hoping and wishful thinking about shelter

A refuge from hurt, fear and grieve

If only we have a tenth of our own

If only we can fill the boxes with hope

On the match again we chanted in our wet drenched suits

Progress! Progress! Our lungs hurt with expectation

Well, fellow Nigerians and the rest is history

Our rains became hurricane, flooding our hopes away

In chains we all lived our days, at night we only had the stars

Even the poets were not spared, returned to the earth with his pen!

When will we ever going to have our robes dry, when?

Suddenly the Iroko fell! Felled by the forbidden fruits from south of the east

In loud ovation we danced, finally the stallion will make the tenth

that same night, the stallion was put down before dawn

And yet again under the horrendous rain we stood!

The eagles came home, the owl came back

Years in exile had beaten our birds like a whip

99 was the magic number, prison was the place to be for some

Frap! The umbrella went up! Finally we are saved from the cold

Only of we knew what was in that well, sadly,we all drank in ecstasy

14 moons has passed and the umbrella brought more rain than the Amazon

Death, debt and deep damage, rot beyond the deep Dead Sea

Lifelong lack and living less, lonely and low under the Umbrella!

June 13

How come I don’t get it?

What is this malignant song all about?

I heard the cat was skinned by the rat

So what? Should the world cease to exist?

From Adam, Cain and Abel has been at it

Years of sharing the spoil without a noise

So why should last night lose its poise?

Or the devil has suddenly changed its side?

The headlines and footnotes all seem to care

Of whom they grew and dine with wine

Justice oh, those fairy tales sucker!

Fairness his sister always in between the fights

Yesterday was a reminder of you loss

That huge coffin carried by the ants

Deprived of the crumbs, sugar and water

All the ants need to stay alive and strong

Now the will the dead, 20 years and fresh

Eulogies from around the clan

Even this year the clowns sang a solo

The melodies of skulls filled with rot

Yesterday was a painful prompt

We lost it a long time ago, yes we did drop it!

Now the rats are even more daring

With big bowels and vacant cavities

So the squirrels are now drawn to the game

A nightmare this is sure must be!

Only to roll over and check my clock!

It’s Thursday June 13, 2013!

                            Omo-Ekun- Ilu-Nla

On the March Again!

We are on the march again
Beating the same drums we bought from the queen
The same tunes that was played at our christening
Wait! Something is familiar with this dance
The merry-go-round move that ends with a smash
The falling of the dancers and dropping without a bounce
 Again we start planning for the next trip a day we came home
Fighting for the best seat on the caravan that never seizes to fail
That’s my spot Olu screamed! Segun is driving so what?
Every trip the numbers fall, the coffin at least must be sold
All the supplies gone before the camels rise
Hopes dashed as if it was a game
 1520 is the year of the Gods
The battle between evil and the evil makers
Many said it’s a gentle ride from the start
Now we know the dangers of a quiet peaceful lake
Solemn, silent, snake with sinister venom
Don’t worry about its bite, we will be dancing again!

                                                                                                             Omo-Ekun '13