When My Lover Asked Me Poem by Chukwuebuka Adebayo

When my lover asked me
How much is my love to her?
Then i took her to the field
Where the threads of cowpea grow
Plucked some dry pods of the beans where it laid
And together, home we made our way.


When we got home, I swung a pod open
And showed her the beetle within
Said to her, have you ever examined the beetle?
Despite we plucked them off their roses
Like waves pulling the turtle to the shore
Yet the beetle keep crawling back to the beans.


With each winnowing to set them apart
With the fire, we will burn them up
Yet the beetle keep crawling back to the beans
And never thus their bond break
Bittersweet, betterworst, side by side they stays
Then I said to her, darling, so is my love to you.