Times and Seasons: The Anthology, Page 2

  We want the flower, the tower and the shower

  We want the whole world in our power

  We want this; we want that

  Bu we have neither this nor that

  We want to be here, and there

  We are neither here nor there;

  To win or lose: to be used or to use

  Man is man when man knows man

  Death will die, and life will live

  Ajayi Simon Angel

  ToothBrush

  I didn’t scoff the grub

  For pleasure and sanitary, I scrub:

  To doff trite piece of food

  Is my calling from the wood?

  When man meets assorted meat

  I grieve for the chewing treat.

  I am man’s aurora friend.

  Like the ultimate man, to the very end

  I searched for decayed morsel particle;

  To restore man’s fresh breath is my hustle

  Cast me away and man’s teeth will hide;

  His wont glide—that’s my pride;

  I’m his quotidian servant-master

  Adorned with creamy butter

  To evict stinking gums from vocal isle:

  Never weary, I renew his oral smile.

  Oguntade, Damilola

  He Wields the Steel

  Because he wields the steel,

  Our tongues have become suddenly unmoving,

  Only our hands seem to be willing

  To submit alms that’ll barter our peace.

  Is it not true that we gave him steel?

  Yes! But to ward-off the unknown for us

  And now, we are faced with friendly fire

  The report of his “guider steel”

  Would anyone not purge the land of him?

  “But oh! Who’ll protect us?” the voice I hear.

  “Hush!” I have to counter it really quickly

  The steel has cost many their fathers,

  Has gaoled our protests shut in our stomachs

  Has drawn more blood than salvage it,

  Becomes suddenly missing when we beg its true use.

  He claims that his meagre remuneration

  Is what drives him to seek dirty alms.

  But I dare say, it is his uncultured mind

  His poor grooming that makes him brute

  When out of righteous indignation,

  He ejects the hot cylinders of his cold steel,

  He calls it the antonym of ‘deliberate intake’

  And in summary, he rids himself of all his guilt.

  And now, he’s on the road again,

  In the guise of a “Road Keeper.”

  His sole ambition is so nakedly masked.

  To make us submit to the sanction of his steel