Paintstains Poem by Chukwuebuka Adebayo

Paintstain


This was my home, it's where I left them
My painter father and my cooking mother
Growing up in a small village in Lessi
Gave mine identity, history and culture
One was young, couldn't know many
Closed family members dying,
Separation from loved ones
When uncle Ayo died of health disorder.

There was a war, when I learnt to fear
Fighting between the ile-ife and modakeke
For it shook all our houses and animals away
One went out with Sailor henry at streets of lagos
Said he preferred cigarettes to cooked meal
Very full of jokes and speaks good French
And his story of how he was deppoted
We used to play lottery but I play no more.

This was what I hated, it's what I am doing
Climbing scaffolds into your rooms for a paintstains
Looking for my friends, something took away
They are hung on walls now as photographs
One can't stop the world's spinning fast
Going to parties with strangers, I don't know
When the party is over, I only tell them my name.