OLAFISOYE-ORAGBADE OLUWATOSIN DAVID

 

Voices Calling From Death

 

The sun bore witness to a sea of men,

fists clenched into raging balls,

voices raised in conspicuous anger,

one can see the heat boiling in their veins.

a man is in the middle,

his face made into a map of mountains and ridges colored red,

his eyes, weary of the vicarious death he sees.

just before he sleeps to the end of time,

a voice, like a noisy alarm clock on a Saturday morning yells,

"Nor be him thief am, na the wrong person be that"

but nobody answers his name from the other side.

 

One Last Stand

 

Naked bodies dance around me

their skin forming a union with mine.

Each hair strand,

like a young fidgety soldier staring at war,

wobbles at the knee at the sound of their steps.

I can see nothing but the picture of my soul - darkness, all black.

In the multitude of the silence, I hear a whisper

like a mother sharing an ancient secret with her son in the presence of all.

The voice is low and somewhat rhythmic

with droplets of water tapping a beat on the soil.

The words are clear:

"Why did you have to go?"

 

Stories:

 

in war, there are no middle grounds, it's either you'd sit and tell stories

of how you learnt the cologne death wears,

of how your breath became prayers,

your prayers became ornaments of your loved ones hanging down your necks like little kids,

their lives hanging on the tip of your gun,

shoot!

"kpa kpa kpa!" your gun speaks first,

then silence.

another man's prayer is rejected.

the gods chose you to be their poet, so you speak, you can't stop telling stories.

 

OLAFISOYE-ORAGBADE OLUWATOSIN DAVID

 

OLAFISOYE-ORAGBADE OLUWATOSIN DAVID is a 4th-year medical student at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Kwara. Known by the pseudonym "King Davey”, he is a poet and spoken words artist who enjoys playing with words. David won the ILUMSA Malaria Day Poetry Contest in 2021 and was on the top 20 longlist of the 2021 Nigeria Students' Poetry Prize (NSPP). He was also awarded the Best Poetry Content at Poethon Season 4 and ranked 3rd at YWCA's Spoken Words Artist of the Year 2021. His works are published/forthcoming on African Writer, CÓN-SCIO magazine, Arts Lounge NYC, Shuzia, SprinNG, BPPC Anthology and elsewhere.