OLALEKAN HUSSEIN
AT THE ROADSIDE
after Sodiq Oyekanmi
for Deborah Yakubu
[6:45pm]
I stand at the roadside as the florist wrapping up my flowers approaches me with bunch of lilies; I knew lily one day the ground welcomed father’s noise when mother tucked it on his grave.
flowers are loyal chaperones that company our ghosts in the graveyards – let my hands kiss the flowers that pal my father from becoming an examen for loneliness.
at the roadside, I fold my arms across my chest like a black man in the face of winter. a highlife journeys into my ears from the barber shop – it reminds me of those days in a slum with my high school friends.
a sudden scary scene breaks into my eyes like a massive cloud behind God’s territory: an assemblage of people running after a college student of about twenty. actually, I cannot tell. I just see people looking like people.
one person. two persons. three persons. every head forms a crowd around her body in order to murder their curiosities.
“hold her tight. she must die. no one curses the prophet. get that tire & the fuel, too. let’s burn her dead.” a hefty man from the vulcanizing shop says.
the mother cries for pardon as she sees the apple of her eyes rolling on the floor like a tumbled fruit from the shoulder of a careless tree.
who does she beg during this dark hour? the Lord who knows this day is coming into existence but doesn’t halt? the prophet?
the man with a matchbox whose eye is a fire & ready to read her dead? the people who set their cameras to post new updates on the street of twitter?
[7:05pm]
the muhazeen’s prayer saunters into my ears as they journey the fuel into her body & set her on fire. life flies in my throat, I cannot speak.
OLALEKAN HUSSEIN (Nature) NGP VI is an emerging poet who writes from Lagos, Nigeria, where he studies in an Islamic institution, Darul Falah. at evenings, he teaches students Arabic knowledge. He writes on diverge subjects including Humanity, Nature, Love, Loss, Memories, what troubles his mind. A Best Of The Net Nominee whose works have appeared & forthcoming in: The Shallow Tales Review, African Writer Mag, Brittle Paper, Kalahari Review, Rigorous, Third Lane Mag, Aster Lit, Libretto, OneBlackBoy Review & other reputable mags. Find him on Twitter @Waliullah_06, Instagram @olalekanhussein71, and Facebook: Olalekan Hussein Oluwalonimi.