OLANIYI ABDULWAHEED

OLANIYI ABDULWAHEED

THE SUN WILL RISE AFTER NIGHT

Many people think we have bald head

That our skull is arid land,

But many hair pregnant under our skin

Some heads above our roof try to crave our destiny in their pouch

Squeeze it to crumble in their belly,

But our fate is sun rays that cannot be thwarted

Some friends from next wall plot to break our joints

Storm our stomach with their roaring morsels,

But our ribs impinge on their forces

We have heard priest’s prophesies for our dooms

Omen from our deeds,

But blind he is to vision our death

We rile against bedeviling dearth

That our hunger is to swallow famine

Our pain has beckoned to gains!

Our kwashiorkor eco-no-my

Is only svelte,

All is just fast for our growth

Our note may be the bum abroad,

All is just to furnish seat for goods at home

Now priceless the pride

We may be stunted by height,

But the tallest ones never reach the sky

To be taller is to be closer to heaven

Flame in the fine palace

Heralds paradise to the king

After wreck-there is rapid rise

Now fate auctioneers should know

That a new dawn has been anointed

For new days to come

Merchants of Death

Merchants of death successfully traded with our lives

And bagged home the profit of doom

Fetching their thrills from tributaries of our tears

There in their pouch, the stranded peace

Thrived in the basket of rift

Allying with eyebrow of the sky

To hoard the goods of peace in arsenal of chaos.

Yet we bargained our souls with the risk of cleft

And bought home the peppery morsels of bombs.

Vanishing the pen in our hearts!

Lynching the glow of our sun!

DRIED,

the milk

of our mother’s breasts

F-a-l-l-e-n,

the hand

to beat

our chest

Strangers here at home,

Natives there in exile…

LAGOS, THE HOPE, THE DESPAIR

The time, first, to glow in the city

The time, first, to be stranded

The time, first, to be rich

The time, first, to strive

The stinking wealth, Lagos, the mother

The pearly penury, Eko , the eyesore

Influx the poor, influx the rich

Oh! The sky-licking skyscraper of Islands

Stirred the hope, repelled the despair

Ah! The oozing sore of pungent ghetto

Lagged the Lagos, thwarted the growth

Hmm.., dinning in the mind:

Mesmerizing, the glittering nymphs;

Appetizing, the garlic of the kitchen,

Fiercely the roads, friendly the looks

Shocked and soaked

In the labyrinths of roads

In the shell of loss,

I lured, the courage, to lick the omellete

Of timid-less

Lest straddle the stranger

With dazzling minds

Departure to Lagos

Arrival, the hope and despair.

OLANIYI ABDULWAHEED

OLANIYI ABDULWAHEED: He studied English language at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. He is the former Electronic Manager II and former Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Association of Nigerian Authors, Osun State Chapter, OAU Branch. While in office he was one of the facilitators of Prof. Gbemisola deoti’s Inter-University Prize for Poetry organised by ANA Osun-OAU in 2015. His pen name is PENMIND. He is the Editor-in-Chief of his blog, PENMIND MEDIA AND CREATIVITY at www.penmind.blogspot.com.ng