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