Tobenna Okeke

Tobenna Okeke Poems

Tobenna Okeke Biography

I started writing because I was having suicide thoughts Failing romantic, financial and spiritual life and I felt i needed to put something down incase questions were to be asked later. Thankfully writing saved my life and since then, I've never looked back. Lover of music Gospel, Trap, Highlife, Country and Soulful spoken words, reading and of course writing. I'd enjoy a good movie too if there's a mystery being solved in it I've watched Sherlock Holmes, Elementary, The Mentalist, The Blacklist...)

The Best Poem Of Tobenna Okeke

They Say Women Shouldn't Talk

When he asked my number I couldn't refuse
He had this charm about him I couldn't deduce
I knew I was not the first girl he's had to seduce
I knew I was not the last girl his smile would amuse

An innocent hangout blossomed to the first date
Before I realised it, it was already too late
His car was parked outside my father's gate
And I was passing the elders kolanut in a plate

When I walked down the isle to say I do
I had this gut feeling in my heart like deja vu
I dismissed it, being a non-believer of vodoo
His smile was as genuine as the day he said, ‘I love you'

For our honeymoon we travelled overseas
It was two weeks of the most perfect bliss
He treated me in anyway that I so please
He showed me what real happiness is

Seven months later, I was lying in the hospital
But the doctor had assured me that it wasn't critical
Only for the baby was the incident fatal
For me the injuries were not physical

I had begun to see a monster I did not marry
My friends told me I'd be stupid not to tarry
That the beatings were only the tinniest cross to carry
For the wealth lavished on me by Barry

He was beginning to stay out late at night
Always agitated and badgering for a fight
Though the strange perfume on him was light
It was evident he was cheating like black on White

I went home and laid my complaints before my mother
My complaints were met by strings of laughter
She said it was an attitude peculiar to their gender
She told me stories of how she braved her own weather

She told me there was nothing I could do about it
That if my husband beats me I should just bear it
If he bruises me, I should quietly tend to it
‘You have a husband that is rich, be grateful for it'

Ah! My husband that no longer eats my food
Beats me around like axe would do a wood
How would my silence do me the slightest good?
Wish I could get out, I wish I could!

But then the society would brand the bad wife
They'd say I don't know my responsibility as a housewife
Is it till this monster dissects my heart with a knife
That you'd realise that what is at stake is my life?

They say a woman should only be seen, she can't talk
"The backyard, " they say "is the path women walk"
"The kitchen is the end of education for the womenfolk"
"Leaving your husband will bring you nothing but bad luck"

In this twenty first century?
So women entering marriage should sign their obituary?
Be the silent mark of an abusive husbands trajectory?
I leaveit for your conscience to meditate in it's sanctuary

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