THE STRIVEN PATH

The shouts of aworo at night
The shrieking sound of the king’s gong
The mixed cries of a starved goat
The repressed smiles of a new mother
Established into the same circle of existence
Like the strings of a cushion chair
Slaved into ways that scare the ding dong

We still have a long way to go
Of reverence and prayers to the gods of silence
As we are opposed to the struts; the bane of hard marks
And blood that invokes the Avesta
The journey is rugged and naked

The thirstiness of Awusa is like a preparatory room
The morphology of a peppered meat with bad salt
For the ascension of holy maggots that bewilder the holder
Of what shall we ask ourselves?
What journey we partake; what part we take in its homecoming
The pretense of our children shall accost us to the grave
Where what will our destinies end
In the hands of the leader or the chain man?
Our hearts lie in the window of hopelessness
That the widowed pawpaw tree be pacified
Let us not dream of better things
Without concealing the fate of the unborn and the un-birthed
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PIETISTIC PASSAGE

The transition is sudden
Begotten from a previous stratum
Unto another; known or unknown
Up or below or sideways
Destined to make a difference

The leader shall step up
And another shall take his place
Begotten from a tribe
Collectively accepted
And his ways shall be scanned

His methods seem testy
Thirsty for blood; bad or good
Ordinated to serve
With confused schematics
Searching for a blind way forward

Non sentimental and separatist
Sombre and drunk
Perceptive to stimulations
His immunity for a life
All that matters is being sanctimonious
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Poems © Adetuyi Adetola
Image: JM Whalen via Flickr