Aduke Poem by Muyark Olamilekan Hlestakolve

Aduke

Aduke— they called her,
and the name fit like gele on a sunny day.
"One who is cared for, one who is pampered"
and you could see it in how she moved.

Dark in complexion like midnight ink,
but her smile?
Her smile was morning light.
Jovial, loud in the good way
the kind that filled your class
even on Mondays when nobody wanted to learn.

You met her in secondary school,
with big books, bigger dreams,
and that "I will finish first" energy.
You watched her grow
from uniform and plaited hair
to abaya and hijab,
still the same Aduke.
Still cracking jokes in the middle of serious class,
still raising her hand like answers were a sport.

Now she's in The Polytechnic, Ibadan.
Computer Science.
Writing her last examination.
Lines of code behind her.
Algorithms, databases, programming and faith.
Hijab neat.
Dua steady.
Laptop open, heart focused.

Aduke, the Muslimah who learned to code
and learned to pray.
Aduke, who proves that tech
and taqwa can run in the same system.
Aduke, who laughs easily
but debugs problems quietly.

May her pen never fail her in that exam hall.
May her results come back singing her name.
May the world care for her
the way her name said she would be cared for.

From secondary school benches
to Poly Ibadan computer labs,
you've grown
but you never lost the Aduke in you.
The cared-for one.
The problem solver.
The one we're all proud of.
Aduke. The future of tech is wearing your name.


Muyark olamilekan hlestakolve