If Tomorrow Never Comes

If tomorrow never comes
Tell them I did my best
Unloaded all in my chest
For the benefits of them to come
And a light journey to my rest

If tomorrow never comes
With pride, I can look back
And say that I left my mark
I dinned with the devil
Without sinking in evil
Flew with the Angels
And partnered them to every angle

If tomorrow never comes
There will only be one debt I owe
No matter how much I strive
Paying in full, I never arrive
It’s the debt to love, I know

If tomorrow never comes
Let everyone who cares to know
Blame me not that in this life
I couldn’t repay all I owe
For deep in my heart I do know
I lived without a strife
Keeping a debt that’s meant for eternal life

If tomorrow never comes
Let everyone know
That as our Christ cleared our mess
I loved even he that didn’t know
Though I never could clear his mess

Above all, let everyone know
That I loved everything about life
The Ups and Downs
The Shirts and Gowns
Everything that was shared
Everyone that really cared
That is, if tomorrow never comes.

Born To Die

Every baby's cry announces arrival to live
But mine announces desire to leave
From the minute am born
Everyone knows I won’t last
Because I carry unfortunate blood
Unfortunate blood that I didn’t choose
Unfortunate blood Imposed on me by nature
Yes, it flows in my vein
Blood is life
Life is in the blood
But mine carries death sentence

Mama, why do this to me?
Papa, do I really deserve this?
Even if you don’t mind my short stay
Must the stay be agonizing?
Even if you had money to lavish
Must I bear the pains of your wish?
Must this little life of mine be soaked in crisis?
Must I be coming and going in cycle of sickle?

Every trip on this journey
Gives me a new name that isn’t mine
Some call me Abiku
Others shout Ogbanje
Some even mutilate my lifeless body
To stop me from coming again
But am I the culprit?

I have the desire to live
But the fire in my bones won’t let me
If mama cared for my life more than emotions
I wouldn’t carry this blood
If papa hadn’t lived in ignorance
I would have been spared this agony

Have you seen me in crisis?
Every cell in me is a cell
A cell that cages dreams
A cell that cages life
You need to feel my pains to know
Groan to the world that it is heartless
For whatsoever reason
To give life to one that is born to die.


Did I hear you say we all shall die?
Tell me, how many live for death
How many count their days to the grave?
How many live a life of crises?
Dying only becomes sweet
When life has given you a chance to live first

Not so with me
The one that starts dying in the womb
Dying daily in my sickle cells
Cells of pain and agony
Painfully dying gradually
Though I have strong desire to live
I still must pray to leave soon
I must bow to the fire burning in my bones
Don't watch me die in groans
Somebody save me from this blood of death!

The Triumph of A Dream

Martin had a dream
Martin shared the dream
Many heard the dream
Few caught the dream

Some soaked the dream in wine
Some held the dream in arms
Others stained the dream with blood
Many gave up the dream
Few pursued the dream...
... with their blood

Sing the triumph of the dream
Triumph that no weapon could give
Triumph that blood could not secure
Tears made no difference
Words simply turned a waste of saliva
Only sweat gave the triumph

Not the sweat of fear
Nor the perspiration of anxiety
Sweat welled up by days in libraries
Sweat streamed out by months of doggedness
Hard was the sweat that gave the triumph

Triumph that weapons could not win
Triumph that blood could not secure
Triumph that words failed to bring
Triumph won simply by sweat
Sweat of hard work and diligence

Martin had a dream
Obama caught the dream
America now lives the dream

How Time Flies!

I can’t believe it’s 19 years since we first met

It’s fresh and feels like yesterday

I heard her tiny yet melodious voice 19 years ago

Saw and admired the sleeping beauty 19 years ago

She was my first experience of love-at-first-sight

I carried her in my arms and beheld a new me

I can’t believe it’s 19 years since I first loved her

Fist of Joy

On the last hurdle of the “teens” club

My baby has come of age

We‘ve grown together for 19 years

In smiles and frowns

In cry and laughter

In fears and joys

For 19 years

Like a character in a movie

I have watched my love

Grow from baby to lady

For 19 years

I have watched events shaping her life

And participated where I could

What has the “teens’ club” done to you?

What did you do with youthful exuberance?

Any stint with juvenile delinquency?

Anything to remedy within this last hurdle?

Should there be anything left to catch or let go

Before you clock-in on your second decade

It’s never too late to brace up.

My one and only is 19

The baby turned lady

Is gradually leaving the teenagers’ club

Happy Birthday Fisayo!

MONGUDU

The elephant dies and melts

Melts off in the bowels of Mongudu

The buffalo dies and melts

Melts off in the bowels of Mongudu

Mongudu the melting pot!

The melting pot of ancient days

Neither the thickness of the elephant’s skin

Nor the filthiness of the pig’s

Is a threat to Mongudu

Once on heat

Mongudu boils them all

Tell all the Mongudus

That the decadence of a pot

Is the concern of only the pot owner

Tell Mongudu

A water pot is good

Only for as long as it is clean

Water is not water

We may not know their sources

Rain is not river

All may not flow

A well is not a pool

Nor is it a pond

Even at boiling point

Some waters are still contagious

Tell Mongudu

The parable of the squirrel

Let her know

In what delights the mouth

Lies the death of the eater

Tell her

The pot is the eye of the body

May it see no evil.

Mongudu is a ready pot

As rough as the crocodile

As ugly as the Hippo

All melt in Mongudu

Could it be gluttony?

Perhaps it is avarice

Heat is all and one to her

Duration and intensity notwithstanding

Alas! Mongudu boils on

Then comes the day of reckoning

The news goes a beckoning

Mongudu is cold

But no one is bold

Some heat to share

With the melting pot of ancient days

Mongudu the melting pot dies

Alas! No melting pot for Mongudu

Mongudu stinks.

PITY PARTY

Is it not funny?

Doesn’t it sound odd?

That the living should mourn the dead

And take pity on them

For a good life cut short?

When our heroes lay down their weapons

And take a bow from worries

Reflections on happy past

Celebration of their legacy

Are true memorials they deserve

Tears or sorrowing is a disservice

When a well spent life

Is yielded back to the lender

Mourning is ingratitude

When a tortuous man in life

Is kindly relieved of his life

Why should the living mourn the dead?

When the dead are thankful of eternal rest

Let the living brood over their worries

FISAYO CELEBRATES YOUTH

As you celebrate today

Pay attention to my words

And make use of my instructions

On your journey in the next seven years

Teenage years are bridges

Bridges between childhood and adulthood

Teenage years are fun-filled

Funs are sometimes intoxicating

You can do and be all you want

But God must be in all

Teenage years are full of choices

You choose your friends

You choose your dress

You form your dreams

And shun some voices

But God must be in all

Every step on the teenage ladder

Is a cornerstone for your future

Be mindful my dear daughter

Each stone to put in measure

Youth is a wonderful time

Youth comes but once in a lifetime

Congratulations as the “Teenage Club” admits you today!

HEARTLESSNESS

Why say am heartless

When you it was

Who stole my heart

But refuse to give yours

Giving, the two edged blessing!

What difference it would have made

If only I had yours

To feel and to care

The pleasure would have been yours

Our days would have been made

The irony of selfishness!

It is doubly painful

Where the double heartiness

Is not doubly gainful

Even in excessive caution

Could be a loss of portion

Let go and let me

One broken heart

Two suffocating hearts

The former seem the better

Let go and spare me

Had I yours as you have mine

The pleasure would have been thine

If you say am heartless

You are right, doubtless

Away you stole my heart

With yours you refused to part

GENESIS

In the beginning…

What is the beginning ?

Nothing new under the earth

How can it be ?

Because the beginning is in the end

In the end ?

The beginning is in the end

End of what ?

That is the question

The answer to which is ?

The end of the contrary

Help me out !

The meaning of genesis is found

At the tail of end

Your meaning ?

The end has a beginning

A beginning has an end

And so ?

As the birth is the end of conception

So it is the beginning of life

As death ends a life span

It begins the journey into eternity

Genesis is only meaningful

Where there is an end

LIFE DEFINED

What shall it profit a man

If he gives what he can not keep

To have what he could not get?

Life for wealth

Wealth for life

Both shall come to an end

Of what use is life devoid of wealth?

Of what gain is wealth without life?

No robbery in barter!

Should wealth be the gain of a lifetime

Life may as well be the cost of wealth

Life isn’t too much cost for wealth

To have a wretched long life

Or a short-lived affluent life?

It all depends on why we live!

Worth dying for, worth living for

Why shouldn’t man live as he wants

If his wants are noble ?

Why shouldn’t man quit living

If his journey is uneventful?

With this life divine

Where the race is not to the swift

Nor the battle to the strong

What is the place of man

In his plight in life?

DADDY

If only i had known

The third blow would be the last

I would have asked my questions

And probably love you more

Perhaps I should have known !

You were never so down

But I kept to your word

A hundred years you said

Who would have known ?

You never said goodbye

I only said so long

Till a day or two

I long so much for them

The praise songs from your lips

The laughter I so much loved

The caring you for her

My much beloved daughter

If only I had known

In the bits of farewell

In your prolonged illness

In your incessant prayers

The old resurgent faces

You would have had my all

Since myself I always have

And my seeds with me

Even when you are gone

But I never knew!

Oh! I never knew

The reason you loved me much

And things you’d have me do

To please your parting soul

I would you were here

Your quiet time to share

Interceding for your homestead

That is so much burdened

By the devourers you always knew

Sleep not daddy

A word or two will do

AS THOUGH

Four years ago you left

As though you never cared

As though you never loved

As though it weren’t you

It must have been mighty

That tore your caring arm

And curbed your will to be

To see your Great-Grands

Supposing such weren’t true

That sent you visiting offspring

In all the crannies of the world

And sent your manly eyes a –tearful

On the endless expectation of one

Your departure wouldn’t have mattered

What be thy disposition thence

Since journeys you can not make

And hosting you dare not do

The next three score years

It must have been lonely

Oh! Daddy I wish I knew

What has since become

Of your mirthful self

The one I used to love

Probably gone in loneliness

Or so ever broadened

By the heavenly host

Or even renewed

In the new seeds that grow

In the fresh dreams we share

Our dreams!

Four years ago!

As though it were yesterday

As though it were a dream

As though you were a journeying

Sleep on Daddy

Till all are brought together

At the white throne

Of the all mighty Mighty

TIME CHANGES

Where is permanence

In this transient world ?

We have come to leave

And so are our affairs

Time, the architect of change

Like a river, carries souls apart

Like the proverbial twenty kids

That can not play for twenty years

Dreams are lost in time

Think of the stolen hours of pleasure

That gives birth to intimacy

Or the slippery fish from there begotten

Should the quest for variety win

The seldom fashion indulgence

Is often the father of vogue

Differences creep in untold

As the dusk fizzles into dawn

So the chanced sumptuous meals

Gradually courts the taste

Chanced is then swallowed up in favourites

Alienating twins that sucked same breasts

Greatest is the crime of indifference

Where differences are in contention

Differences unlike the truth

Know not the route of constancy

In metamorphosis or soldiering wade

BANKY THE BANKER

Join me to pamper

Pamper the dove I cherish

In her I bank my treasure

Bank your gold

Bank your silver

A heart is all I have to bank

Bank it my Dove

Where it is safest

Not in the way of “FORUMS”

Where distress can ravage it

Nor in the manners of “JEZEBELS”

Easily lured away by vanity

Bank it as if it were yours

For yours indeed it is

Bank it my sweet dove

Join me to pamper it

My deposit is fixed

Bank it and use at will

Turn it over, let it yield

The interest therefrom is my interest

When you have banked that

There is more to bank

Bank the sweet memories we’ll share

Bank the dreams we pamper

Bank the hope we nurture

Bank E ( Bank it )

It is our treasure

Do not pamper my errors

Nor bank my frailties

From this world acquired

In same to be relinquished

Short-comings when realized

Short-goings become

Short-goings are short-gone

Want to join me to pamper ?

Come let us pamper !

Pamper my only banker

Join me to pamper her

For she’s all I have

SEASON OF THIRST

How could the fall of a pin

Have raised this much dust?

Why should the leaves

In such shameful disguise

Boldly embrace a powdery look?

When the sole can not predict

Where the hard surface lies

And the ankles continuously swim

In the ocean of dust

The shoe can not boast

Of any other colour but brown

Had you the courage and time

To keep the flower beds wet

And the godliness to keep your dress clean

Have you the grace to stop the wind?

Much needed yet much dreaded

Soothing on flesh

Ageing on hair and eyelids

What volume of showers

Will cake this dust

That is evasively jolted to dance

Burying the showers

In the depth of its bowels

Eight inches below dust level?

The land is thirsty!

Thirsty, let it be!

Till it has accounted

Where went the waters

Of the season of floods.