Idylls of Love ___Part 6 (Fading Only into Memories)

Idylls of Love___Part 6 (Fading Only into Memories)

Days grew like grass between us
On the lawn of distance time created
The edges  of  love become blunt
That lorry still raises dust of memories in my mind

Your name is crested in my heart
Your presence is frequent in my dreams

Is it not like yesterday

When destiny made our path cross

When we first met

When the dew of our morning is beginning to find its ways across the world of men

I remember that innocence you had in your smiles

The charm that hung around your neck

The beauty that dangles with your waist
The honey that flowed from your smooth tongue

Yes, it's just like yesterday

Yes, that night during the search of Sohun
I was still seven and you just five
You look frail and I fain to protect you

Sohun was that great palm wine tapper

Whose fame had gone over hills and rivers

Into many villages beyond our own
His weird climbing skills

Was rumoured to be given him by spirit beings
He was feared to be in possession of some mysterious powers

And truly, there was magic in the way he walks and talks
Yet he was a man who never knew true happiness

After four days of combing the forest
We saw his body lying lifeless

At the mercy of worms and vultures
A man of honour lying on undignified bed of death
How he got there was a puzzle
He was surely not murdered
For such things are unheard in our world
We are the oracle of Peace

Some said it was his debt that killed me
Some said his doom was in his strength

Some said he sold his soul for fame and power
He took too much of fresh wine out of frustration
And slumped into that blurry realm only visited by drinkers
He rested rudely on a log hiding a viper
Which stung intruders without mercy

It was during this search I first met Amanda
We stayed in their house

We the men of the village

Though I was too young to be called a man then

But I'm the heir to Bambibi, my father

Who is the warlord of the village

And I've been regarded as a man since I was born

Your hut stood close to the forest
And you and your mother took care of us

Throughout the search

Bringing us food, water and wine

I could hear my heart
Beat twice faster each time I saw you
And each time our eyes met
I shiver like a naked man
Hiding in an abyss of ice

That was the beginning of a long tale
That will be told years after we are no more

The search was over and the dead lay to rest
I always stopped by to see you
Sometimes I waited at length
By the path that leads to the stream
Hoping you will come by with your pitcher
To get some water from the stream
And you often did

Not because you ran out of water
But because you knew I will be there waiting

I breath each moment only to be with you
Each day was incomplete without you

I loved you that I hated to be with any other
We enjoyed the ecstasy of those moments

Only to be startled out of the dreams that come with childhood
Only to be yanked and drifted apart
As you descended into the oblivion of the city
A tangible experience gradually faded into memories

Twenty years has gone by now
Hope kept its flames burning bright

 And it's just like Yesterday since you left

Twenty years since you've gone
Leaving behind your root
Drifting away from your ancestral origin
I wonder what the other side has done to you
Which seems to have twisted your sense of reasoning
And clouded your sight of judgement
That you don't see where the flowers of happiness spring from any more

© Olatuja Oloyede

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Watch out for part 7

To be continued tomorrow