The Nation Newspaper

Category: Niyi Osundare

  • SNAPSONGS 68

    They say June’s children

    Are lush like the lyric laugher

    Of the sky which begets their moon

    With neither grief nor grudge

     

    Against the whistling fury

    Of Time’s enchanting chariot

    And the fiery mantle which falls

    On the shoulders of abundant seasons

     

    Vibrant like papaya leaves

    Swaying ceaselessly to the urgings the of the wind

    And the romping generosity of pumpkin flutes

    In the orchestra between the furrows

     

    Spirit of gentle breezes

    Which harbor a soiree of rainbow sighs

    Author of that whisper which

    Puts Thunder to humble silence

     

    The egret courts the spotless grace of your laughter

    The bee envies the honey in your throat

    Weaverbirds know not what to do

    With the fertile imagination of your busy nest

     

    Offspring of the Rain

    Hold this day with both hands

    Let your song rise to meet

    The twittering ululations in the timeless tree

  • SNAPSONG 65

    Now that the story has ended

    Let the dialogue begin

    The street has picked up the song

    Oh how eloquent the sighs of the sole

     

     

     

    The road follows us

    Wherever we follow the road

    Step after step after step

    The feet undo they tyranny of distance

     

     

     

     

     

    Houses wear their eaves

    Like vigilant ears

    The rafter’s riffs un-silence the roof

    Giggling gables surprise the sky

     

     

     

     

    See how they rob the moon to pay the star

    These clever sky-riders and their horses of clouds

    Galloping all day, all night

    On the boulevards of our fancies

     

     

     

     

    Dire and long, the dialogue of our being

    With epic syllables and sentences of thunder

    How they dwell on their type of telling

    Stories still winking in the cellar of memory

     

     

     

     

    Let my words befriend your ears

    Sweet as sadness, wistful as a whisper

    Now that our story has run its course

    Let our dialogue begin

  • The Earth we used to know Is once upon a time ….

    When last did you hear a river cry

    From the torment of toxic effluents

     

    Did you see the rain fall and falter

    With its acid plague

     

    When last did you swim

    In an ocean overdosed on plastic

     

    Did you see the crimson foam

    On the crest of beachward waves

     

    When last did you hear the mountain rumble

    From the desperate blast of fortune hunters

     

    Did you see the yellow peril

    On the lips of a once-luxuriant lawn

     

    When last did you hear the rasp of fallen leaves

    In the forest which once challenged the skies

     

    Did you hear the swansong of vanishing birds

    In a Paradise riddled with broken feathers

     

    When last did you see the earthworm’s

    Random cursive across the pages of a sleepy road

     

    Did you miss the snail’s silver signature

    On the dotted bark of the tree

     

    The stars no longer sing

    The moon now moans behind a cloudy mask

     

    The rain which falls from the sky

    Is a brew of blight and blood

  • SNAPSONG 63

    Follow where your heart goes

    But never leave your head behind

    The flesh can hardly run

    Without its brother bone

     

    If it looks too good to be true

    Then it really is

    The mirage which mimics a pool in the distance

    Is nothing if not a concrete acre beneath the wheels

     

    Between Fact and Fiction

    Is a house truer than both

    In this wondrous house

    Are rooms with countless windows

     

    The year’s first raindrops hit the ground

    The hen takes them for grains of corn

    There is no end to hunger’s havoc

    Even in the fold of our feathery fellows

     

    The millipede challenges the train

    To a race beyond the hills

    We wonder who wins the medal

    In this game of many legs

     

    Follow where your heart leads

    But never leave your head behind

    Oh how we cry for a heart which thinks

    And a head that knows how to feel!

     

  • EARTH DAY

    (To be accompanied with Music of the Earth – in any language)

    Everyday is Earth’s

    Earth is everyday’s

     

    But this day is the day

    Of the bell and the gong

    Of solemn awakenings

    And the hurt which comes before the herb

     

    Wounded trees bleed in the forest

    Lynched lakes congeal like rancid potions

    A poisoned sea foams

    At the edge of a million mouths

     

    Who dare forget

    The day the River caught fire

    And the Mountain lay crushed

    Like a mound of hapless cake

     

    Yellow rains, crimson dew,

    Broiling winters, freezing summers

    A perforated sky leaks red tears

    Into the basin of thinning rivers

     

    A tropical madness unclothes the streets

    New-born babies surprise the cradle

    With double heads. A heartless Science

    Has sowed the wind; see how we reap the storm

     

    Where are the silk-petalled flowers

    Birds with feathers of paradise

    Air clean like the breath of a mountain spring

    Dust which speaks the language of the human skin?

     

    This day insists that we

     

    Restore the frog to its pond

    The dew to its grass

    Man to his mind

    Earth to its future

  • SNAPSONG 62

    Am I really the answer

    You seek, or a solution

    In search of a problem

    Tell me true, tell me quick

     

     

    Am I the road

    Which heaves beneath your sole

    Or a pavement of pebbles

    Which surprises your iron heels

     

     

    Am I the cloud

    So stingy with the rain

    Or an unwitting blessing

    Which forbids a flood

     

     

    Am I the sun

    Which wakes up your sleeping fields

    Or the a ruthless fire

         On the cinder which becomes your roof

     

     

    Am I the love

    You pine for in your sweetest dream

    Or some backstreet lust

    Which evaporates with the fleeting sigh

     

     

    Am I the prayer

    On your coated lips

    Or a dreadful curse

    In the temple behind your tongue

  • DANCING POLITICIANS

    (for SK whose letter from Uganda provoked this ‘riposte’)

    Dancing politicians are water dragons

    We see their surface antics

    But will never know who beats

    Their drum in the watery depths

     

     

    One leg after another like stilt-dancers

    Their jointless limbs are oiled by graft

    The grease in their palms is enough

    To fill a thousand barrels

     

     

    Dancing politicians sway

    Like dizzy masquerades

    Their masks mock the pitiless

    Severity on our swindled faces

     

     

    There is a spunk in their spin

    Which unnerves the wind

    A giddy pirouette which feigns

    The circle of a thousand stunts

     

     

    Dancing politicians fake

    The dialect of the drum

    The idiom which rides their lips

    Is a lexicon of lies

     

     

    There is no muse in their music

    No sense beyond their sound

     

  • GIVE ME, THIS DAY, MY DAILY WALL III

    III

    My wall, my wall, my lovely wall

    My dream Empire that will never fall

    Across the desert and the seamless sea

    My mo-nu-ment for the Future to see

     

    Wall, wall, wall, wall everywhere

    In homes, in schools, in the open fare

    In the people’s minds, in the praying hall

    It’s time to be dirty and mean and small

     

          Wall them out

          Wall us in

          Damn their route

          With my concrete thing

     

    How I pine for the era, long, long past

    When the Law was slow and the Sword was fast

    When Kings were Kings and slaves were slaves

    And the Crown was aided by Knights and Knaves

     

    Wrapped in the flag all day and night

    Extolling the Nation and its frightful might

    Assaulting the Anthem with my croaking voice

    Avowed “Nationalist” by crooked choice

     

    Give me, this day, my lovely wall

    My sacred vow, my binding call

    When in the end I’m dead and gone

    Remember my rule by the concrete one

     

          Wall them out

          Wall us in

          Damn their route

          With my concrete thing

     

  • GIVE ME, THIS DAY, MY DAILY WALL

    II

     

    “We don’t need a wall”, the people say

    “So bust your beast”, they plead and plead

    But the Emperor insists in (un)truth and deed

    That they know not what they truly need

     

    I want to be known down the ages

    For the thousands of children in my crowded cages

    Torn apart from their frightened mothers

    Detained, then dumped beyond our borders

     

    Wall them out

          Wall us in

          Damn their route

          With my concrete thing

     

    We live in the age of hate and fear

    You can maul your neighbor like a crazy bear

    If unlucky to be black or bronze or brown

    You reply his smile with a murderous frown

     

    My wall, my wall, my lovely wall

    My gift to History, surpassing all

    I hit all I met like a wrecking ball

    Beyond compassion and Reason’s call

     

    Black is black, and White is white

    The first is wrong, the second right

    Between the two, my Wall of Lies

    The “Alternate Truth” is my righteous vice

     

     Wall them out

          Wall us in

          Damn their route

          With my concrete thing

  • GIVE ME, THIS DAY, MY DAILY WALL

    I

     

    My wall, my wall, my lovely wall

    Make it long and make it tall

    Let it rise from the trembling earth

    And humble the world with its concrete girth

     

    Build it now, without delay

    Forget proper rules and the lawful way

    ‘Tis my tallest pledge to my teeming base

    My timeless will, my abiding case

     

    Wall them out

          Wall us in

          Damn their route

          With my concrete thing

     

    I want the wall the sky can see

    Majestic, imperious, from sea to sea

    The criminal gangs from our seething South

    Are surging North with their crocodile mouth

     

    The wall is History, History the wall

    Jericho, Berlin ‘n China, it stood so tall

    Beautiful barrier, cute tall terror

    The great crime-stopper without an error

     

    Wall them out

          Wall us in

          Damn their route

          With my concrete thing