‎i Become A Stranger Poem by Olawale Owoeye

And I become a stranger!

‎Was I not, in the bathtub of trust, telling you the secrets?
‎I wonder how unreal and unwise I was to have opened to your sight
‎The thread that sews the bottom of my purse

‎Perhaps I should have known,
‎When you fastened the zip of your mouth
‎Not to unlock and spew your inner ideas

‎Was I not among the birds who flew on the wings of selflessness,
‎Teaching your infant mouth to sing the tunes of this caliber,
‎Dipping the lines of 'like-minds' in your ravaging lips?
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‎But now….
You can't remember!

‎Did we not, with our growing iron, sharpen your iron
Like a blacksmith? You ran with your heart in the mouth,
‎beating so fast like temple run,
‎Congealed by fear for the war? Did we not raise
The banner of friendship and fight for your freedom?

But now….
I become a stranger!
‎
‎I see you must have been so cunny
‎To have used us as warriors when your battle was hot
Like a glowing coal that treats the gas to dinner
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‎But now that the table turns,
Now ‎that our irons call on a friend-iron,
‎You had disappeared to a white-washed element
‎That must have fed you with the venom of distrust. Is it not
Because you didn't want to help during this season of summer?
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‎But now….
I become a stranger in the eyes of the known!
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