Orike Didi Poems

the triangle-
canons;
clowns
and all
...

and
preachermen
politicians
prostitutes,
...

Let it be today
That I am one with the trees.

I commune with the earth, rooted
...

Like roots we dug deep, like roots
We dug into the depth of her soul.
Her flesh had quaked with fever in a long drawn battle with herbs,
Her stride slowed like the coming pain of her children,
...

I don’t stand out famous
Like Mandela’s cell
Or Soyinka’s cloud head
Or obj’s false faces.
...

I come with my verses,
I come with my debts.
Accept me like the earth does the sea
Not minding her depths.
...

I shivered
and stopped
to see where 24 bullets ripped through
the heart of love,
...

Eventually, I speak for
the limping
and the dead
for I, dead too
...

I shall dip my tongue in the sea
and wave farewell to freedom;
it is not far from mile stone-cold.
...

We watch the waters go past
Distilled by waves
And dance to an unknown song
From the constellations-
...