|
THE ROADS WERE THIRSTY TODAY
The roads were thirsty today
Coal tar, bloodied with haemoglobin
The cool evening breeze swayed the trees
Men and women bowed their heads bereaved
Tree branches lying desolate on cold tar
Streams of consciousness
Crimson on dark tar
Mangled bones and bloodied brains
Mortal man..
Cold metal hanging loosely again
Gnashed teeth and crushed engine
Accident
Machine gobbles man as always
The roads were thirsty today…
The roads were thirsty today
Ahmadu Bello way lad bare ahead
The dark stretch endless with sparks of lights
From Garki to Secretariat
Maitama to Wuse II
Familiar route at ten pee em
Confident driving, an evening treat
Surging forward
A group of saddened faces
People frozen in time
What happened… I pulled to a stop
Blood trickling from a tree branch ahead
Water, blood nighlight and shifting shadows
"Motor kill Person", came the halting reply
A passer... a journey broken
The suddenness, the finished trip
A roadside end to life's journey
The road peopled with persons
A roadside where a life stopped
Where a man died
Where a man killed
Where the road became thirsty
The roads were thirsty today
And I, an unwilling viewer
Of machine and man
Man and machine... in collision
The images running riot in my head
The blood, the car, the man, the people
The leaves of tar, the man, poor man,
Whose car did the deed
The puzzled faces of passersby
The sudden lights,
The thud and then nothingness
The road was thirsty
Drought stricken today
It took a man as agame
The road was thirsty today
I drove home in silence
In machine, moving slowly in thought
That machine which traverses the road
One in which I travel daily
And as laureate Soyinka puts it
May we never travel
When the road seeks man
In a bloodthirsty dance
May we never travel
On a day the road becomes thirsty
The road was thirsty today
And a man died...
|
I MISS YOU WHEN IT RAIN
I miss you when it rains
When the skies drip wet with tears
And everyone speaks animatedly
Through windscreens and glazed glass
Through muddy, muddy day
I miss you when it rains
I miss you when I am sick
All those mushed up aches
My back, my feet, my head
The sinking feeling within
The cloudy thoughts in my heart
The pom-pom sound in my chest
The butterflies on my window
The absence of touch
Backslaps and head throwing laughter
Everything loses flavour
I miss you when I am sick
I miss you when I eat
Nibbling at food in absentia
The gravy dull in every taste
The rice a fake grain in transit
The drinks a tall distant echo
Everyone in slow-slow motion
The music too loud for comfort
I miss you...
I nibble
I wobble
I nestle
It's the absence of you
All those horrible sounds at night...
I miss you...
|
