Fate has led the way
Over many a thousand hills
To become an hermit in a hut
In this forbidden enclave
Neighboured by vipers
Brothered by scorpions

My spirit dampened
As fences of expectations crumbled
What exactly is this unfolding?
Why is life humming in hoarse tones
Too deranged for my learning lips
Why is time pacing down an isle
Too jumbled for my aching feet

They say good things can be
Shrouded with rags of dirt
And some meats served on golden platters
Are better left for rover dogs
What then are the treasures 
Hidden in this raging of towering fears of mine?

However, a weird satisfaction 
Like a sailing dew settles in my heart
I'm might be at the threshold
Of certain excitements yet unknown
Maybe one day
I might love the adventures of seclusion

I have thrown myself into
The arms of the uncertainty
I can only pray the stale prayer of a long wayfarers
Benue better be a blessing

The day has finally broken from its ripened shells
I have come with my bags of dreams
And my burdens of hope across my shoulders
It's not my intention to let down my arms
In the fight of survival
Until I clip the wings of the wind
And make plain the heights of frustration

Brecht at sundry times once wrote
A kola I will like to chew my own way
"If I fight I may win
If I don't I have lost"

My feet are baptised in of this distant dust
My boots longs for washing
Even my dress tattered by the anxiety of the road
Could rob me of some warm greetings
The gods of my belly are craving without apology
The daily sacrifices that must lie butchered
In the sacred alters of the mouth

So I set out to measure my fate
And that was the beginning
Of a story told only in gay silence of a voyager

One woman at the end of that brownish road
The madam of the highly patronized canteen
Called with dignified greetings

“Oga Corper... Corper Corper!
Teach my sons
I will give you food for free
And some money when every old moon is young again”

Another man, a man of many names
Rich men are see in wavering colours
In respect to the uniform of intelligence
Says to my gladdened ears

“Teach my girls
I will pay you handsomely”

For a moment I danced
The blessings my father is paving a path in the unfamiliar wild

I forgot that the mouths sometimes says things
Beyond the workings of eager hands

That just as the green uniform excites me
It also engenders an euphoric rhythm
Among the ambitious desires of the strangers too
It was not far before long
That I realised that some promises are uncertain prophecy
Of what we all desire

Those promises which sound so sweet
Are often made but never kept


© Olatuja Oloyede

Watch out for part 7

I go edit am later...me gat no time now.....