6 Short poems

I.                    TROUBLED MATRIMONY

She lays awake

In the dead of the night

Listening to his private noises

When love dies,

What happens to all the

‘I love you’

II.                  STREETSIDE EXCHANGE

I have mastered the art

Of giving the body

Without the heart

III.                TRUST

She calls aloud in the streets

She raises her voice to the public squares

‘Don’t you get it?

No man can earn me,

I speak from the stance of one

Who has come to see man

For whom he really is:

Human

Gullible

Fallible.

I am a gift to be given

Not a prize to be won.

IV.                LUST

Oh let me…

Let me count your teeth

With my tongue

V.                  TRUE LOVE

I love you

Deeply and sincerely

But my world does not revolve

Around you

You are not the air I breathe.

You are not the life of me.

If you walked away

I would hurt

But I must certainly survive.

If you decide to die

I’d mourn you

Put you in a wooden box

Dig a hole

And bury you.

And love again.

VI.                A LETTER FROM YOUR GIRL

Dear,

Do become successful

It would make loving you a lot easier.

                              Yours sincerely.

(‘Street -side exchange’, ‘Lust’ and ‘True Love’ appeared first in Sentinel Nigeria Issue14;

‘Trust’ appeared in Sunday Sun Review January 2013)