I Am Danfo The Indispensable Son Of Molue (Lagos Id) Poem by Michael Eziudo

I am danfo
The one that has a body bartered from the kondo
Of the flat-bottomed police officer
And his broken heels counterparts agbero
With tyres chopped from the gallopy roads of aged Lagos towns and many a corner
And I swerve here and there on the way, chitiki chitikitiki. Gbalagbam gbamgbam!
Like an overused Lagos market pepper grinder

But I am danfo
The guerrilla war assassin that the unsuspecting tired commuters commit their lives into everyday morn and eve
With parched brakes and soldered stirring-wheel, I go
Fearing not what comes before me, dead or alive
For myself, I have no life to live

I am danfo
A university where you meet with people of many a sort
Some fully mad, others half mad and some others, partially sane -
For the completeness of the sanity of anyone you meet in me is still under debate
A team lead by the conductor that plays the role of chief lunatic asylum seekers
Directed by the driver, the same symbol that writes the script
A university where the option of "if you can beat them" is not given

I am danfo
In me still, others are stereotypically over-sized with armpits that stored acquired life-deficiency perfumes,
The ones that are as toxic as the smell of the pit latrines of Lagos public compounds
And some others are as slender as bonga fish that they can be hidden in the breast pockets and aprons of these over-sized ones; but they have more mouths than anything I ever see
While some others carry mouth odour everywhere like it's their birthmarks
But what can I do, I accommodate them all
So see? I am as highly IQed as them that board me

I am danfo
The potent disease vector
That gives generously either ways
By the change you collect or the salty body water from your seatmate or saliva from the conductor's mouth when he says, "Howo da! ! ? "
If it must go by air, a lot of sneezing flies nowhere outside the windows
Neither does the gas from deflating stomachs after the days absorption and combustion
The types that come out from a separated laps or one-sidedly bent body
But I am patience still and so are the cursing commuters

I am danfo
And I'm only found in Lagos
The city where no man's business is your business yet your business is every man's business
Where meat sells more than food and ashoebi is more important than school fees
Here, I careless what dust I raise when I ply, why should I?
Why should I?
When those who should care often see easy life yet follow the hard path
They feel it's insanity to get bed of roses, milk and honey without struggle and hustle
I didn't plant that into them as their mindsets, did I?
Sha remember when I said the completeness of their sanity is still debatable?
It's exactly what I meant.
And I mean it still because majority of them run back from the cities they ran to as fast as they can
They say a city without hustling, bustling and struggling is a dead one
That Lagos is the most alive place
And I agree with them because I am nothing but danfo

Yes, I am danfo
That is all that is my own?
I must fulfill my calling
The call of my destiny
Serving humanity as the madness tranquilizer and insanity calmer that I am
Yes, I'm a crazy illusion as
Marwa-dear Keke, can be banned
BRT, taxi and okada too can be banned
But if I am banned, a lot of mad people will get well
And that will be their death.
Why? Because I am danfo, the indispensable son of molue
And they are used to me