Omotayo Oloruntoba Oju

Omotayo Oloruntoba Oju Poems

Omotayo Oloruntoba Oju Biography

Omotayo Oloruntoba-Oju, PhD is a Professor of African and Caribbean Drama. She is a faculty member of the English Studies department, Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba-Akoko Nigeria.She has published widely critical studies on Caribbean and African Drama paying particular attention to the works Derek Walcott and Wole Soyinka.)

The Best Poem Of Omotayo Oloruntoba Oju

Hold Me Mama Me, I Can't Breathe

I fled not
Looked not them in the eye
Just the way you taught me,
Mama me

I struggled not
Spat not into his vile eyes
Just the way you taught me,
Mama me

Just the way you taught me
Momma, silence sealed my lips
A dreary dread drove me dumb
Four uniformed men left me dead

Listen, Mama
I crossed no line there
Believe me, Mama
I did no wrong here

Down the grocery store I drove
A twenty-dollar-cigarette to-buy
'Fake bill, the twenty dollar! ,
Yelled the pale-skinned cashier

My plea it wasn't fake
Fell flat on jaundiced ears
A call 'cross the counter:
'There's a _black dude_ with a fake bill! '

They came
Four policemen
white
Armed

A shove
A push
Tosses and kicks
I'm felled

Pinned down hard
Hands held back
hand-cuff-ed
Face-down-flat

Three step back in acquiescing stare
One drags knee on your baby's neck.
Digs hard in
Digs in harder

Under the yoke of a deadly kneel
I can't breathe
Under the weight of a crushing hate
I cannot breathe

I pine and pant and choke
They're white, I'm black
They gloat, I groan
Time ticks painfully past

I-can't-breathe-8-plus-minutes
Under the choke of a hate-hold
Death strolls slowly in
I can't breathe

Maaaama....
Mamaaa
Ma-ma
Mama...

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