To A Child With No Direction Poem by Kareem Azeez

I have found no place that I can call mine, in these thing call life
For all that I wanted, didn't find me,
And all that finds me, I did not want.
In-between these rubbles, I came across time
They told me to go forward, that I shall find some permanent joy
From thunderstorm to thunderstorm,
Hurdles yet again to cross hurdles……

I am the wanderer with no direction
The lone ranger in-between rubies of life, yet I still breathe
Those who sold love here, have gone bankrupt
Life and people had pushed me forward, tied me a mile away.
Our people say, if you want to walk on soft spots, wet the ground
I had washed the soil beneath my feet
Fill the bellies of men, and serve kings, some treat me like a slave,
Better a slave, than false love, for these my people has a lot
And so again I walk through the lights that one day I shall find
Those who do not sell love for lesser price

I have no place that I can call my own,
For all the place I taught permanent were all made with rods of temporary
The beds I sludge my head
Where leaves rotten in the abyss of time
I came to the imported home of a religion my people are fond of
Yet inequality lives here.
They say it isn't the creed, but the practicers of this creed,
What good is a way of life that changes not all, but a few?
For my heart remains insatiable
I have come these far, not to settle for the hypocrisy of men
The hypocrisy in the eyes of the ones I call my own, and in the eyes of the ones who taught me how to lie and love again.
So I ask, where then can I find satisfaction from the bottomless whims of men
They told me to go forward,

There they pointed, and forward I roam,
Into the dark and endless pit men call life
Into the oceans of blues and hatred
Into the thunderstorm of little relief
For the doors where truly dim, and logically pleasing.
Right there I found life, life eternal.

Kareem Itunu Azeez
Anthology of the waiver bird
2022