The Girl Child
by Nelson Vincent Ayomitunde
(Author’s note: Based on certain cultural instincts that have birthed discrimination in gender, this poem is for feminism, dedicated to the girl child.)
From where I come,
A girl Child
Is a Mis’take
A Miss Stake I say
A Missed Stake
Let the moon die
For Again, It’s a girl
Let the sun cease to warm
And it’s ubiquity expire
Let Elements War
For it’s a girl
It’s a girl child
A bastard
Take her to her father
Die!
Else Lord I pray,
Let this cup, over me pass.
Nurse, strangle
This thing is not mine
For a male on a dung hill
Betters a female on a gold mine
Moral Negligence or What?
by Nelson Vincent Ayomitunde
(Author’s note: This poem discusses moral negligence and contains words in the Yoruba language, a South Western dialect in Nigeria. Iya Sikira — Sikira’s mother; Baba Suberu — Suberu’s father; Aunti Janeti — Aunty Janet; Boda Tamedo — Brother Tamedo.)
Iya Sikira,
Aunti Janeti,
If you have lifes, live.
Iya Sikira* paddles her feet
From Genesis to Revelation
Her husband, Baba Suberu*
Has no remote for his home
Aunti Janeti* too
The first daughter,
In like manner
Strolls aimlessly from bed to bed
The glory between her legs
Is perused by cows and dogs
Boda Tamedo*,
He has a long chain
Plus a market list of ladies
His roll call of the captured and the prey.
One, two, three and four
Baba Suberu numbers his concubines
Census!
This family is a nation
Who do we blame?
Moral Negligence or What?
It’s One Road, One Vehicle.
It was war in spring
by Nelson Vincent Ayotimunde
(Author’s note: This poem draws inspiration from: 2nd Samuel Chapter 11.)
It was a war in spring
when David the king
Set Joab and mighty men
Far as Rabbah to make an empty den
But Dave stayed behind…
That evening,
He wandered wondrously
Up the roof of the palace.
There, he saw
She who bathed
in purity
She’s Bae!
“Go find her out”, he says.
“She is Bathsheba, wife of Uriah”
“So, go get her”, he commands.
Then, they laid
And she was full
She sends word
“I am pregnant”
Dave sends for Uriah
In deceit to lay
That night with Bathsheba
But
At the entrance Uriah did sleep
Dave heard and was cruel
Why would the ark lay in tent
And I’m merry?
Uriah asks.
Now,
The morrow comes with your death letter
And your hands shall deliver them
In the fore, he dies.
Dave hears
Sin covered
Wife mourns
New Couple
The fruits of the rooftop encounter
Will drop on your head someday
