Olalekan Joseph Ajayi Poems

A thin flesh over sockets…

Lion-hearted soldier ants
Invoked the Lord of the wild
...

Knocks of crystals upon rusty pans
Snakes flurry through craggy scapes
Ungerminated seeds disentombed
Twisted hoses direct our blood-sweat
...

The kernel is split
Kola drowns the voice
Stifled limbs on drums
We do no' but spit
...

Where set night does wed
And insects chirp freedom songs
Amidst the glory of constellation;
Where February winds
...

We drifted like automatons
Towards chants of Aluta Continua
In the August drizzle
Like warriors in search of war
...

Long before strangers burrowed our earth
To suck out precious black liquid
And drowned the fishes in our waters
Our rivers were flooded with fishermen
...

In vain the clouds converge
And sweat beneath our skins remain
Buried tubers denied water
Verdant beings age and rivers die
...

The mango tree stands on our land
Shedding luscious fruits that
Belie the reign of hunger
And tears of waste that water the land
...

Tonight I enter the forest of words
The moon a lamp unto my naive feet
Like the prophets of old I bear no sword
Just calabash of ink and famished sheet
...