ANNIVERSARY OF MY SOLITUDE
My gaze has been on the road
Peeping through eyes
Bordered with loneliness
Waiting for one smile
Amidst a million faces
And hoping the tree
Whose boughs lead home
Has not been cut

How many prayers
Need to be hummed
Before you find your way
To the space created
In the chamber of my heart

The Christmas tree had blossomed
And withered
A few more breath
To New Year eve
One more sigh
To the turn of another year
Another annivasary of my solitude

DROWN IN THE NIGER
Here stands the harsh sun
That lashed our backs
When we went under its shade
In search of lalle

Here is the motif
Of our soft feet
Imprinted on the wet sand
Now trampled by the feet
Of new dancers
Holding hands
Singing and spinning
Round about the moon

Here is the tomb
Of the infant catfish
That priced our thumbs
When we made barbecue
On toilet slabs

Here under the heap of dust
Lies the remains of my art
The portrait of an eye
That did not live past
One blast of thunder

That is my childhood
Flying on the back of the wind
Into the forest
Where the snake hissed
And enchanted us
To pick the fruits of death

That is my childhood
Drown in the Niger
That splashed waters at us
On Saturday mornings

THE WORD
Sometime in the beginning
As God strolled across the earth
His nose flared
At the sight of darkness
Laid on the earth
As a hen incubates its eggs
And at the sound of his words
Darkness was chased into night's tent

Day and night
He tended the gallery
For the exhibition of his sculptures
Into which life was transfused
And afterwards sat back on his throne
With hands folded over his chest

One of God's little sculptures
Poured ink on a plain sheet
And painted the colors of the earth
And in the process
Stained himself
But attained immortality
In a bid to mimic his maker
In the art of creation

HOLLOW IN A MAN
There is a crack in his ribs
That can be stitched
With the thread
Woven from the strands of her hair

There is a hollow in a man
That can be filled
With the carcass of a woman
Seeking refuge from vanity