My Friend Poem by Tony Adah

We were born same day
Named same day
And circumcised same day
We grew up together
Spun tops in the sand and
Chiggers made a meal of our toes
Dented them like rhizomes of ginger

At nightfall we slept
On a raffia-woven mat
Shared our dreams
And saw the ghosts
Of our enemies together

He and only he made me
Gestured my head for
Anything he wanted
Of this friendship
Which made us slow walk
And did things like co-joint twins

Today things have changed
And he is far away
Even when he comes home
We rarely see
He holds his own bottled water
Under his armpit
And dispises the stream water
We drank as children

We so love ourselves
But that was then
When born on same day
We thought we will also
Visit the necropolis on same day
Not now that our
Friendship is mote-eaten.