THE STEREOTYPE

They are not all beasts,

They who are as dark as night,
They are not all fools,
Just because they are not as right.

Look beyond the scars,

You would see a constellation of stars,
Beyond those empty trays of nothingness,
Are goals in endless arrays of greatness.

We bleed from love and not of lack,

We are noble, we are black,
Before you spit on the Potter’s clay;
Remember you too will one day decay.

SOON OR LATE
This is as far as I go,
The ferry can no longer row,
Soon or late,
To each a date.

All life ends the same,

The man dies before noon,
The world’s a stage, life’s a game,
Like a bolt from the blue,
Some are just too soon,
Cheers to wishes that never came through.

DARK RITES
Ikwuoche is dead!
He ate his wife’s food the night before,
Aleku has taken its toll,

Amaka has gone bald,

She must sleep with her husband’s corpse,
To prove her innocence.

Oba Durojaiye is no more!

Seven of our sons must share in the spoil,
Ifa has spoken!

There’s just so much I hate to say,

The surreal practices of the black race,
I have been to the hinterland,
I’ve seen much more than I understand,
How they pay obeisance to some piece of clay,
And offer supplications for daily grace.

Across the arid and humid clime,

Girls still go naked at their prime,
She must do the best she can,
To feed the child and the man.

Yet, you hear our fathers say-

“I hate the white man;s way,
They fed us at noon,
And at night left stealthily with their spoon,
The white man is all the evil you cannot see,
He’s the reason we still live under the tree,
He brought us out of our caves,
And sold us out as slaves.

Odiegwu!
But the white did not create the Alekwu,
We killed our twins before they came,
And gave our daughters no name.

Before the gods go to sleep,

If at all they had ever been awake,
Your sons no longer make their heap,
Your daughters no longer visit the lake,
They’ve read the white man’s book,
They are now off your hook!

ABOBAKU
Embalmed by the shroud of ignorance,
I basked in the thought of new role,
I am the Abobaku, the soul without a sole,
As part of the deal, I’ll get the chance,
To wine and dine with ease,
To grow as fat as I please.

And so the rumours began to fly,

The sacred tree has fallen down,
How is it that the Oba has to die?
The stool is without a crown.

The king is to be laid to the ground,

But the Abobaku is nowhere to be found,
In the main, someone must die in his place,
Someone at least to tie the King’s lace.
Whether or not this is right,
Let the naysayers be the judge,
For now, I have to witness the rite,
Against the gods I hold no grudge.

ENENU
She’s the sun below the horizon,
She’s art and my muse,
She’s the Moon, when its up and shinning,
She’s my plug and fuse,
She’s everything sugar and spice,
The only star on my Broadway show,
She’s rhythm and she’s the flow,
She’s fire and she’s ice.

KISSES
Kisses are like words,
With different meanings,
They are like memories,
Woven on putrid scars,
Kisses could be hopes
That fizzled out like fallen stars
Kisses could be promises
Kisses could be lies
Kisses could be true
Comforting as the morning dew,
Kisses could be a soundless call,
Yet so loud like voices and chatters,
Kisses could be so deep,
Nothing else matters!

LOVE OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT

Just how do choose,
To cut the brain loose
Then without a doubt,
There’s one you can’t do without.

Is it true what they say?

That love is like the Potter’s clay,
Do I have to mold her into shape?
Or cherish her ‘lemon’ even when I prefer grape.

Just how do feelings evolve,

And then transcends to falling in love,
Do you give out your whole?
And let them own your soul?
When we just stare and no longer chat,
Is it still love or something like that?

THE VOW
When the mount is on the loose,
And the pain is ocean deep,
When your eyes glistens with fear,
I will always be there.

When tides sweep through your veins,

And your heart is on the edge,
In that still moment of hurt and pain,
I will always be there.

In all things fair and right,

I will carry you like a badge of honour,
From the hinterland to Taiwan,
From dawn and as the evening fall,
In more ways than one,
I will be there when you call.

As deep as the hollow

As promising as tomorrow,
As pure as the sky is blue,
So, will be my love for you.

BEAUTY
All the Heavens and the skies,
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Swim in the stream of her eyes

Beauty sits on her brows

And her nose is like rose,
The perfect bloom that glows.

Bless me with a stare

Even if it be as terse as this verse,
For beauty as this is rare.

Ageless like the rays of sunlight,

The sunbeam of twilight.
THE NATIVITY
I came without a clue,
I came without a spoon,
Silver, gold or blue,
I was born at noon.

The day after Sunday,

Out at last I came,
Brittle little Monday,
I came with my own name.

MY FAMILY
I come from a family of eight,
Each one with a different trait,
The first a sharp contrast of the last,
The second is barely a part of the cast,
He seldom talks, but is everyone’s favourite,
Unlike the third, he is smaller in size and height.

The third can make a lie look so true,

Even the Sophists would feel so blue,
The fourth has only one flaw,
With noodles and egg, you’d clip his claw.

I love the fifth so deep,

I hope she doesn’t turn out the black sheep.

The sixth can bite the flesh off your skin,

If you mess with any of her kin.

The seventh and eight never gets along,

For she felt my parents got it all wrong,
She wished she was the last,
She missed the goodies from the past.

The eight though still very small,

She’s the liveliest of them all.