DO YOU LIKE POEMS?

GSM [GOD SEND MINE]

to-to-to…to-to-to
the thing beeped
me listened:
y’hellooo!
i heard a voice bellow
bawo ni bello?
another responded
in a mellow:
i dey Yemoo…
with his dilating owl-like eyes
roving his bloated face
his blabbering mouth wide
and flat
like mama-put stainless plates
clutching to his distended cheek
the general symbol of magpies
his handset
wondering
with an exclamation mark
hanging ominously over my head
my coconut head that caricatures
my body frame
with my palm firmly set
against my granite face
no thuraya
will put me through to God
no sagem
will send my message beyond clouds
no nokia
will knock on heaven’s gate for me
no motorola
will motor me through the narrow lane to endlessness
no trium
will make me triumph in the tunnel of
ten thousand temptations and trials
but, the palm of the hand
does not mislead its owner
my two palms confluencing
in meditative gesture
will connect me beyond connections
and inspire me beyond imaginations…




1977
ethereal thread of umbilical cord untied
from the august visitor
maternity agog and the wildfire of good news
spread on to the plateau of Jos
happiness rent the air in kisses and tears

the cries of pain imploded into infantile wail
oh like mother like son
the august sun stood still and shimmered on the
soft splattered smile of the face welcomed by every race
in this world there’s for everyone a place

where’s the father?
he heard the news and the happiness was bringing
him home from the Mambilla
this is the birth of a new breath of life
come home quick and kiss the bundle of bliss

in suns and moons to come
what will the august son bring?
with dreamy brown eyes delicately buried in fragile sockets
he seemed to be telling them
the days ahead are housed in dungeon of dreams…
i am the dreamer the liberator.