POEM: PHOENIX

by Cynthia Jusi


Stuck on this bed

Heart suffering hundred degree burns

It feels ugly but I know it’s just for a time

From burnt endings; new beginnings arise.



Living in my past

Is driving me crazy

Starting from a blank page

Could be terribly upsetting

But I’ll pack the pieces

And burn them up

Start from the ashes



All those pains and heart aches

From my past often appearing

Like ghost flits

Almost pulling me under

So I am gathering together

The pictures, letters, cards and dried roses

Throwing them into this furnace



I will start again

From the ashes!

POEM: CRUX OF LIFE

by Priscilla A. Adesheyoju

This road I take

Should it lead me back or forth?

I fear

Cos the journey of life

Comes with no directions

The decisions of our heart

Sometimes move us to delight or despair

Rough, bumpy, tough it may be

But the rose is fairest when it’s budding new

Hope is brightest when dawns from fear

A new day will come

And this will be gone

Now I see a light

Yes a light comes forth

When all hope is lost

Faith or fate, fury or fear; we choose

Then we’ve reached the crux of our lives

POEM: RAINBOW WINGS

by Sylvia Ojima Agamah 

(Today, the nanty greens team celebrate with Sylvia Agamah on her birthday. This poem is written by her as she reflects on life.)

This I know

Not so long ago

Met I a butterfly

Beautifully perched on my window glass

Brought to eye a tear I dry



Every waking moment

Was time spent with my friend

The butterfly of morning light

Colours of great interest

So fragile; so magnificent





Enchanted butterfly!

What stories you tell

On your rainbow wings -

A crawly caterpillar

To a stagnant pupa

Now an aerodynamic spell



Your flutters; gust of life

You are me -

A reflection of change



Sylvia Ojima Agamah is a brand management expert based in Abuja.

POEM: HEART SONG

by Teehem

My heart, it beats
to a song
You and I understand
We can't hear it yet
but one day we will
Till then we dance
sometimes alone
sometimes together

When you say your heart breaks
the beat doesn't stop
the music does

Let's continue this dance
if not together,
Alone
My heart beats for me..
For you and others..
It's mine,..yours
and theirs
You know..don't you?

When I say my heart breaks
nothing stops except my beat
you're lost in the rhythm of the song
you dance me out

When We both are gone
the beat will beat
to the same song
..a different tune.

POEM: SWEET GOOD-BYE

by Cynthia Jusi

I have been down, down to the floor

Since you walked out the door

I wish you were here to make me smile

But it's too late;you've gone more than a mile

You broke my heart with no qualms

Though I would have welcomed you with open arms

Ooops!

Now that's all but a lie

'Cos you were such a BUM!

Bet you didn't know that...


I know I had tendencies of feeling insecure

That was when I was still yours

I knew the things you did in your car

All those secrets that made you feel like a star

You thought you were strong and I, weak

You had me in too deep

Well, I have moved on

And it's bad news for you 

Yeah it is ur friend

You wouldn't have guessed.... 

POEM: CAN WE?

by feyisayo adeyemi

Can we sing the lullabies

as we sail down River Memory;

tickle the armpit of Venus,

play like baby's first day out

ride the arch of rainbow

splashing its colors.



Can we be joined in the

symmetrical circle of hope

that love might endure our

naughtiness

POEM: ...WHY I SING THIS SONG

by Olaniyi Adekanye

Monki, my friend

You are special

Since I have been walking

My whole wide world walk

You display every lineament

Lineaments of incivility

Idiosyncrasies of the bush people

To fathom your attitude problem

I suffer mental constipation

My blood is hot

And running dry

I am malfunctioning

It is your folly

That puts me in this state

My smile gathers wrinkles

Wrinkles of bitterness

My laughter echoes anger

Anger from which I hunger

You know I don't have enough anger

To waste on minute issues

Horses are naturally meek

Men cause the horses' shriek

And bitterness



Monki, my friend

Far and wide

You have travelled

The intellectual world

You have explored your brain very well

It is now retrogressing

Maybe you have overworked it

Maybe you have too many extraneous pigments of knowledge

Only an aberration of cohabitation

Causing your slimy and stumbling tongue

May God deliver you

Grow up!

Do attitude architecture

I cannot say you should go back

To school to get

What you left behind

You might have succeeded academically

You have failed 'characteristically'.



Monki, my friend

Maybe I should remind you

That good character beautifies

Maybe you think I don't know now

That deceit lay behind your facade of good countenance

That a good woman is praiseworthy

Maybe you don't know that I know

That you are of wife age

That your contemporaries are fidel and fecund

In the chambers of the owners of the monies of their heads

But what man

What man will be patient?

What man will be so chummy?

What man will condone

Your sweltering attitude?

Your unwitting discharge?

Maybe you need to know

That if you continue like this

No man

I mean no man

Will be nostalgic

Of that home you keep

For him.



I wish I could keep my mouth sealed

but my abhorrence might strongly push me

I guess

to notoriety.


Olaniyi Adekanye, a graduate of English and literary studies from Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, is a native of Akure in Ondo State, Nigeria. He lives and works in Ibadan as an editor in one of the leading book publishing Houses in Nigeria. Olaniyi can be contact through: niyiadekanye@yahoo.com or (+234) 08060266505.

POEM: ASK ABOUT FREE WILL

by feyisayo adeyemi 

When belly goes Choir everyday

how does a man think free?

To chomp -

 begs on another’s mercy

How will he wheel his will?

Auction

the soul goes out

run son!

                 ran some,

                                ransom!

tongue-tied

the master driller

bores a hole

 deep

damn soul

soiled

he howls

hunger unto his neck

scampers at your call, beck

for the crumbles he’d peck

idealism runs low

in the gutter

flood washed it off its street

Reality opened

a book called Check

heart ripped ,hopes parched

freedom ferries -

a long walk

down

nameless street 

THE ROSE OF THE WORLD

by Yomi Edward

Those who made the world smile
would never die unsung
their hand-prints shall eternally gladden the sky...

Those who made the world smooth
would never depart
in silence
their legends shall
eternally rock
generations unborn...

Those who made the world beautiful
would never parade the street unscented
their deeds shall
eternally be lubricated by the little man's eulogies...

Those who made the world smile
would never die unsung
the songbirds shall hum their names
the wind shall provide the rhythm
the trees shall dance
along with us
when we unveil
their names

Those who made the world smile
would never die unsung
their handprints shall eternally gladden the sky...

Those who made the world smooth
would never depart
in silence
their legends shall
eternally rock
generations unborn...

Those who made the world beautiful
would never parade the street unscented
their deeds shall
eternally be lubricated by the little man's eulogies...

Those who made the world smile
would never die unsung
the songbirds shall hum their names
the wind shall provide the rhythm
the trees shall dance
along with us
when we unveil
their names
like rainbow
in the sky...

would be
like rainbow
in the sky...

would you dare be
a rose to this world?

WE ARE WALKING WITHOUT LEGS

by Olaniyi Adekanye

Even when the moving eyes

Effect their coyness of denial

The watching moon was my witness

The scorching sun also autographed

The sweeping rain left uncertain scars

The scattering wing garnered nothing

From the four-corners

"Don’t we have people up there?"

I asked the ageing father

The ageing breath chorused misery

"We are walking without legs, my child."

Was after a l-o-n-g l-o-n-g silence

My heart became busy...

"And we climb the ladder without the rungs."

And my being was still-life

"God wards off the tormenting flies

For the tail-less cow."

That tilted my passive aggression

That He steers the man

And not the people up there.

...a hole in mind

Belly crys,head aches

a jobless tomorrow,no pay...

grateful am alive;how do I survive?

This ideas

this ideals

 ...will light a fire

will spark the glow,tomorrow.

Hope, faith

owed

to time

wanes.