For All That We Were
seeking the sultry delights of the chevron of your golden thighs
that gleam against brown sheets like the Abeokuta sunrise
I still hold the taste of you from the last time
on my tongue like an unspoken promise
Akanni, Where Is Your Dance?
Ọ̀rẹ́, where the walls have ears, secrets become mouthed songs
Songs that only the initiated know the dance to
& In that garden of concealed meanings, metaphors and parables bloom
Akanni, I have sung songs, where is your dance?
I. The Lesser Evil
One of them is between a queen’s thighs
& Another is behind the dark curtains of death
Adéláìdé
“I am searching for something and I think if I write down all my thoughts, I can search the puddle of it all and find a thing—an idea, perhaps—that I believe in and that would consume me so.”
Rántí
The shadows grow longer and the grey clouds journey home
And now the madman seeks the sanity of privacy
Gingerly, he gathers his belongings
And abandons his perch at the market’s T-junction
Giddily, he falls in step with us
