Ìfàlétí Olómi Laàpẹrẹ
It is so sad, my friend.
The Agent of love birds,
you sent to twelve miles
village, sold you cheap lies.
I know her love gropes
the words wrapped in brown envelope —
that broke the Camel’s back
But then, it died like a travelling smoke.
Our tortoise friend,
with a broken shell that said:
Keep dancing in your backyard,
is the pest in your farmland
harvesting the glory of tubers;
cassava, and vegetable vases —
The prices paid to woo her here.
Yes! He wooed her, but to himself.
You could have called the dyer
to sell you six yards of Kampala.
Sew your regalia of courage —
Lace your lip with eclogue of her entourages
With that, you could have captured it,
& win her heart’s priceless bounty.
Look at you now, Ìfàlétí, your missing rib
remains missing, till you lost ribs.
Napoli Not Like Lagos
Dora the explorer came by,
To the bedbug resort cushion chair,
Of my father’s Face Me I Face You,
Her lips, dancing with tales of Ajala the Traveller
Seeking for my Green Card,
selling to my parent,
how greener the grass is –
on the other side,
Let’s say I seek pasture in departure,
Following vision of Lagos pastor,
The queen’s land was the promise
That drove my father’s land for sale
And his hunchback Peugeot
Shattered in Owode Inirin,
to fund my wings at Murtala Muhammed
It was not over at the stopover in Libya
How did I get here?
In the Middle Heist of Mafias?
Running train on me in dark room of Italy –
With no traffic like bridge of Lagos.
Stop the bus of sex trade fair, now!
Napoli is truly not like Lagos,
Neither is the grass greener
At the other side of the sea.
Yaba Left, Lagos
Y-elling knowledge seduces a Bookworm,
A-dores aesthetic doors of his brain
B-uilt to swallow pages, house libraries,
A-mputate tests that handed him excellence.
L-ook the crannies of uncompleted buildings now,
E-nchant the ode of our lost Engineer,
F-ind us the Pharmacist we never had,
Trail him, softly to nearest hard drugs store.
L-ast heard from him was a valedictory speech,
A-nd the last said to his now-lost head was
G-ongs and rattles cheers at city square podium,
O-ff he goes! Yaba, left side of Lagos,
S-erene Street for the ones who had a dream.
Folorunsho Ahmed Adekunle is a Protest Poet, Essayist (Shortlisted in the US Archaivarian 2023 Essay Writing Competition), has a debut collection, Adisa in the Ray of Sun, published by African Books Collective, UK. His work has featured in the Decades of Nine Hills and Thrills (An anthology in honour of Prof. Wole Soyinka, Nobel Peace Laureate), Edge of Humanity Magazine, The Stripes Literary Magazine, Outside The Box Poetry, AAUASU Magazine ‘23, and Wave of Words Magazine. Folorunsho is the founder of Shelter of Freedom Foundation’s Poets In The Trenches Initiative.