SILAS ABAYOMI

SILAS ABAYOMI

PINHOLE

Tiny is the hole,

but great view

it generates,

small is the

penetrating light,

amazing is accompanied

information.

By window side,

I stand to watch

the world,

many are the surprises,

shocking are things seen,

bombshell trail mankind

daily activity.

At window side,

I see the good and

the bad,

I see daily cries from

orphans and widows;

I watch how justice

is served,

poor denied justice,

rich go home happily.

I watch how greedy

rule over righteous,

how wickedness

continues to grow,

good retarded and

decline.

At my window side,

I watch all dirty deals,

clothed in immaculate

white, and

innocent blood shed,

for gold and silver.

I watch how wars

are planned and

executed great and

mighty,

I watch how fellow

humans are sold

into slavery,

girls sold into

prostitution.

I watch how corruption

reign supreme in politics,

religion, and commerce,

I watch how leaders sow

seeds of discord,

create division to hold on

to power.

I watch how morality

continues to tumble,

decency, decorum, and

good manners sold for

mere pot of soup.

I watch how mothers,

wives sell sex for money

men leave home for

lover girls.

I watch how children

get lost in wilderness

nick-named earth-

human civilization in

reverse form,

watching hate replacing

love,

wickedness takes place

of kindness,

help removes from

mankind’s lexicon.

I cry alone,

I wail alone,

I weep as mankind

grope in darkness

called modernity.

If I close window

now,

draws the curtains

forever,

turns off fluorescent

not to have

illumination,

cut off from outside

world

to become a hermit,

who obliterates mind’s

retained information?

No one,

yes-no one-

not even the angels,

at my window…

I cry for the world.

SINS IN ME

Sins in me are

many and varied,

from venial to mortal,

faults in me are plentiful,

from visible to invisible;

degree of my errors

ranges from don’t tell or

it does not matter to

“confess your sins

before the throne of

living God.”

Evils in me-

society easily activate,

shortcomings in me,

neighborhood always

turbocharge to give ways

to temporary enjoyment;

personality flaws,

precinct continuously

cold-cocked and assaulted.

Weaknesses in me

society fully understands,

my DNA mankind has

unraveled for selfish gains;

remotely humankind use

failings and imperfection

in me,

for commercial activities of

demand and supply.

Urge to commit sins

society repeatedly lay

before me every time,

desire to love mundane-

society throws at me,

greed-intense and selfish

desire for everything-

peer cultivates in me;

immediate gravitations

my eyes always covet,

even when spirit resist,

body succumbs.

My eyes-society has trained-

to love gula or gluttony,

luxuria-lust and fornication-

society makes less sinful and

evil through lewd

entertainment and

indecent advertisements.

Avaritia or greed-

commercial world

keeps promoting as

only ticket to success.

Superbia-pride and hubris-

mankind associate with

strength,

tristitia, wrath, vanagloria, and

acedia or sloth-all princes of

evil,

society inculcation into

my heart without resistance.

Who delivers my soul

from nether world?

who saves my soul from

Hades or Gehenna?

Church has failed me,

religion offers no relief,

pastors and imams are

fleecers. 

Society-presents no hope,

politicians-agents of darkness-

falsely selling gloom as light

to people,

intellectuals-their light

has gone dim,

cerebral has gone syncope,

commercial world and

big business have become

brotherhood of evil.

Any hope to save my soul.

I doubt it,

any means to save this

generation,

I don’t think so,

any way to save the

world,

I don’t rightly know,

I don’t suppose.

May these SINS

never led me to

Golgotha.

TEARDROPS

Man’s act of inhumanity to

fellow seems endless,

evil man keep pursuing

from sunrise to sunset,

“I shall make him cry”-

goal many people seek

all day long;

anguish and sorrow meals

man prepare and sell in

market place.

War driven by profit,

rich creates and prosecutes,

market created diseases

for economic gain,

campaign items 

for politicians and

products scientists

sell.

Weapons of terror,

business without

conscience

keep producing,

swords of chaos-

merchants of death-

unceasingly

sell to armies on

both sides.

Hate messages

world religions

have changed to

doctrines,

tenets to cause ethno-religious

crisis,

religions advertise daily.

Xenophobic messages

nations now rebrand

as patriotic call to

duty,

creating tension among

citizens, residents, and

immigrants.

Racial superiority

multi-national media

continue to promote,

politics and policies of

powerful nations

gravitate

toward “We” and

“Them.”

Every day innocent souls

turned orphans in

only homelands

they know, and

child-bearing-women

become widows

through wars

never caused by them.

Greed from world superclass-

continues to shrink

humankind economic power

and base,

turning half of world’s 

population to mere slaves,

potential threat to homes and

families,

danger to human security and

his tomorrow.

Who will save humankind?

Will politicians help?

Will world religions

provide succor?

Will big business

allay the fear?

Only time will tell.

I WILL SMILE

Even if it rains,

I will smile,

never shall sweltering

heat,

take away smile on

my face.

I will smile in

darkness,

I will smile in

the light,

I will smile in cold,

hot, and inclement

weather;

smile-I will have-

on rough road of life.

Little though-I may have-

I will share and smile,

I will smile in my worries,

under tension and in pain,

I will smile.

I will smile,

even if life disappoints

me,

when I make mistake-

lips won’t go on vacation,

when betrayed by friends

and siblings,

when hurt by trusted soul,

I will smile.

On divan bed,

I will smile,

when night is long and

day covered by thick

gloom,

still I will smile.

In solitary confinement,

I will smile,

in deep, in height,

on mountain peak and

land,

by cliff edge,

I will smile.

Am I hungry,

thirsty, and

sick?

Still-I will smile;

am I down with

challenges?

I will smile.

I will smile unceasingly,

because I have reasons

to do so…

SILAS ABAYOMI