LAST STRIKER

Yet again the red light bleeped

Awaking me from the depth of my trance

Has boko-haram struck again I thought

Maybe finally the perpetual injunction has been stabbed

Something somewhere most be sinister from the west

Too bad a state of mind, but what can I do

Like the Titanic my heart went down

Wholly drown in pain as if from the pitch

Yekini is dead I muttered to my brain

Dead is Rashidi he screamed at me!

Isn’t life expectancy 48 for men my brain queried?

Like a fool I sat starring at my mirror

Another sacrifice for the gods of the Niger

Breed for the kill and groomed for the roast

To the heaven our souls were lifted by him in ‘94

To the grave we fastened his carcass before night fell

His striking was like thunder when the gods drink liquor

He has lost him wits and skills we now all chorus

Once again one of the boundless is gone

At 49 we left a striker to be stricken stiff by expiry

Nine was the number but the cat is dead

My childhood hero, I know you are livid

Mad at the gods for leaving you to sink like that

Rest on Great one, rest on Nigeria’s last Super striker

                                                    -Omo-Ekun, Ilu-Nla