The Return Of Igni Poem by Tony Adah

When Igni returned
From the rocky plateau of Jos
He told tall tales
Tales tall like the mount of Adziese `
He told them straight
You could hardly know
They came from his mouth.

He told tales of how he planted amaranth
And it grew as tall as a silk cotton tree
And fell it
And sawed it for the rafters
Of his house.
He told tales
People laughed
And others astounded
Stood and looked at him.

He told tales of a giant friend
With a moustache that covered his nostrils
Who drank unskimmed palm wine
And closed one nostril with his first finger
And blew out dead maggots, ants and bees
From the other nostril
That were in the palm wine.

He told tales of a hunter
That shot an animal
And caught it with his hands
Before the bullets reached the game.

He told tales of a baby born
Taller than it's mother
And of a man who incised
A lump on a tree and brought out a baby.

He told tales
Rib cracking tales and confounding tales
Of a giant cigar
Which two men held
For one man to smoke;
Of Agabi's small pot of palm wine
That the whole community could not see the dregs
And of himself alone drinking
And the community getting drunk.