40 TIMES
By Ayomipo Ajayi
40 times from the bed of roses
40 times from the fringes
40 times for the sauce mama gave us
to school
40 times the knock in the head as a
pupil
40 times what we have ever gotten
40 times we give, yet found what we
pluck
Cry by the steel, shed tears like the
rain
Run like the deer only to be hunted
and steered
The street is filled with plenty of peo-
ple
But empty minds and souls
24 times of a day the eyes blink
Even the bat can be too blind to see
at night
Stir all the roses, stir all the knights
Stir the whole of the course and all
the fights
But of no use is a shoe to a man
who’s got no feet
It takes the nose to know the pudding
The ears to sounding
The eyes to see lighting and the mind
to feel heights
What you feast is what you give
You ain’t no better than what you
read
Have eyes, see; far beyond the shores
Tossed by the winds, driven by the
waves?
They’d only get you where they want
It just might not be where you ever
had seen
Or even worse than you dreaded
Dreams would always be dreams until
seen through.
Scales and length of years, length
and breadth of beards
Sleep a little further and it’s day break
You don’t have to eat the bread to
know it’s sweet
The outer shell of a rotten walnut can
be deceiving
Sleep a little more, and your hair is
grayed
Sleep a little more and then you are
a sleeping beauty
Words can say all, but even silence
can be so loud
40 times beaten, but never shy
The only person in the ring, yet the
man down.
A FUTURE
By Amadin Cynthia Uyiosa
I am a future though not the future,
A future nonetheless
Through harrowing and difficult tra-
vails,
My back has been bent out like a
bow in the hands of an experienced
archer
My pride mixed with bare earth like
it received blows from the feet of a
thousand bata dancers
But still I am a future,
Maybe not the future as set out, I
know I hold the semblance of the
future still.
I walk bare footed through the dark-
ened valleys,
Barely clothed with twigs pricking my
exposed sides
And pebbles lodged in what used to
be baby soft soles.
As I slowly trudge on,
The sickening eyes in the dark jump
out at me in my misery and conster-
nation,
Now I carry yet again a future, my
future, your future, our future
But, what future?
Crouched in the throes of endless
spasms,
My frail body shudders as beads of
perspiration from my brow lands on
the barren earth,
In my head, I hear the echoes
“whose future, what future?”
THE LIGHT
By Chukwuneke Abel
Once upon a time, in a faraway
country
There stood a green hill outside a city
On it, three crosses like candles on a
cake stood
At its centre hung a Man prepared to
take the fall
Yes! He hung up there for a friend
who cared not at all
Alone and ridiculed as the thorns
pierced his skull
Up there he hung as the shadows
grew tall
Determined, He hung till the accus-
er’s hand did fall
And then “It is finished He cried” hav-
ing completed all
Rejoice, dear friends, for still today
that candle shines;
A Light for all to see
FAMILY MATTERS
By John Okumu
I note the obvious differences
in the human family.
Some of us are serious,
some of us are furious.
Some declare their lives are lived
as true profundity,
and others claim they really live
the real reality.
The variety of our skin tones
can confuse, bemuse, delight,
brown and black and light and dark,
tan and blue and white.
I’ve sailed upon the seven seas
and stopped in every land,
I’ve seen the wonders of the world
not yet one common man.
I know five thousand women
called Laura and Dora,
but I’ve not seen any two
who really were the same.
This soul is not for sale by Nduka Omeife (Water Colour)
56 •
The Lion King
• January - March 2016
ARTS
| POETRY
