A Ray Of Hope Poem by Sunday Adelusi

THE OLD MAN AND THE KOLA NUTS
Ever since I was a little boy
While receiving the sacrificial items
Brought by the good, the bad and the
ugly;
Gladness fills my heart
Not at the lamb or the yam But at the
bowl of kola nuts Patiently waiting
for a bite.
My father would fortify our rooms With the
blood of rams and chickens, And force my belly
to receive a shot of dry gin. Initially, I would
cringe.
In no time, I would be as happy as a pig in mud
Because of the kind nature of the kola nut That
came thereafter.
I am currently over the hills, I've never
visited a doctor
And my back doesn't cry out in pain. My
teeth may not be white as snow
But they are cleaner than the swans of the purest stream.
I fear I have lived too long,
But the kola nuts will live longer. They do not
just bless men beyond their days But also give
them their heart desires.
For me, this is the health of the gods

A LONG WALK FROM HOME
When metallic birds journey
As natives sojourn into the lands of foreigners.
A strong pull to return home
Calls louder than the metallic sound of the trumpet.
Caught in a tug of war,
Natives decide to take it slow. Twenty years
for a footstep;
Another twenty years for a rest.
Never again will their eyes behold the sand they once roamed; Never again
will they take the metallic birds back home.
And so, they die in transit
In a place far away from home.

SILENCE
Silence was pegged to my mouth.
Yes! I was born as a mute.
I wasn't alone, the others couldn't speak too;
Our world wasn't quiet, yet no word was heard.
Pegs were fastened to our mouths And our
thoughts in chains.
We were wronged but couldn't talk.
We couldn't fight for our rights, yet we were right.
We were beaten but couldn't cry out.
Our hearts bled, our thoughts drown
Our eyes became so weary and vision so blur.
The only gift that would save us all hid within us.
Somehow, I found strength in my pain When
all hope was almost gone. My feet again
walked the path once dreaded And I found
the voice to vent for freedom.
I then ripped the pegs off the lips of my people
And we enveloped the homes of our captors with silence

© Sunday Michael Adelusi