NIGHT VISIONS |i| Published in Nigeria in 2015 by WriteHouse Collective Under its Sankofa imprint WriteHouse Collective NuStreams Conference Centre, KM 110, Iyaganku Road, Off Alalubosa GRA, Ibadan Tel: +234 809 816 4359 | +234 818 188 0536 Email: [email protected] | www.writehousecollective.com
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NIGHT VISIONS |ii| NIGHTVISIONS
NIGHT VISIONS |iii| TABLE OF CONTENTS vii||MAIN SECTION 1||REBORN 3||LEARNING AND CULTURE 4||EXAMPHIVER 7||TALES 13||SUNSET 15||ORÓ ÞLÁ, ÕRÕ ÞLÁ, ORÒ ÞLÁ 18||ANGLOMOZ 21||JAIL BIRDS 23||FAJ RATS 24||TO BE OR NOT TO BE 28||THE JOURNEY 31||LABYRINTH 34||ISRAELITE JOURNEY 37||TAAN GBORO! 40||IF I WERE YOU (GOD FORBID) 41||SCIENTIFIC MAXIMUM SHISHI 43||ROOM FOR RENT 45||BLOCK FOUR 47||PEACE ADDRESS 49||DISCOVERING HOME 52||FIRST SEMESTER 55||SHOCK AND SHAME 56||EQUANIMITY 57||I DO NOT READ* 59||THE THREE ON A TREE 61||TODAY, WE TREK 63||OBLIVION 65||BROTHERS’ BOND
NIGHT VISIONS |iv| 66||YOU LIVED, YOU LIVE 69||OAU MEDLEY 71||SENTINELS 73||COMMUNION 75||AMPHI MEMORIAL 79||BONUS SECTION 80||LAST NIGHT 82||ART 83||TO RAPES FROM APES 84||BLINDFOLDED LOVER 86||DEVOURED IN MY SLEEP 87||THOUGHTS 90||SIDELINES 91||TO BE A MAN 92||BOULEVARD 94||GOOD IS EVIL 96||AŞAKĘ 97||A SOUL’S PRAYER 98||HOPE 100||A LONG DEAD PUPPY 102||SPRITE OF THE IROKO 104||BREAK FEAR 106||PHOTOGRAPH SECTION 159||AFTERWORD 160||GLOSSARY 162||CONTRIBUTORS 165||APPRECIATION
NIGHT VISIONS |v| NIGHT VISIONS |vi| MAIN SECTION
NIGHT VISIONS |vii| Temitayo Ogunmokun
REBORN
Ifê
Ages ago, I waddled to your gates On crooked, malformed limbs. Knock kneed, Innocent, inept, green with naiveté Awed by the magnificence of your undulating hills, Misty mountain-tops, sultry sirens, Towering indifference, charming novelty. In these plethora of concatenating variances, I lay hid. A swelling embryo, Swirling, whirling, twirling In the amniotic cocoon that sustained me And when I was ensconced in the comfort of your womb, You spat me out. Without remorse.
Ifê You gazed with dispassionate eyes When your sucklings treaded on shimmering coals And your babes bawled in discomfort You smiled with contentment; When your protégés withered into soulless sheaves
NIGHT VISIONS |1| Temitayo Ogunmokun
And your best were immolated on your altar of excellence; You glowed victoriously When we twisted like scarecrows To the staccato drumbeats of your danse macabre And dropped dead from exhaustion. But you screamed in sheer joy When we were reborn, And like the Phoenix, rose from the ashes Of the ebbing fire you kindled Refined. Purified. True denizens of your walls.
Ifê Do know, though wide I may roam Always, a true son comes home No stronger impetus than the thought Of your all-embracing arms wide open To bid your pliant son welcome I have been here before. In another life In another space. In another time. I am here now. IFÊ I am home.
NIGHT VISIONS |2| Oke Christopher
LEARNING AND CULTURE
We are here for learning and culture, And indeed we have learnt That “A is for God” And God, is as many as have willing vaginas. We have learnt that goodwill can be bought By paying for a few rounds Of bottles or with women. We have learnt that we must work, Work hard to succeed But hard work is not Spending endless hungry hours at Oluwasanmi Hezekiah Reading worthless texts But the frenzied twitching Of perspiring bodies Behind closed office doors. Culture after all, is washing your hands So you can eat with the elders.
NIGHT VISIONS |3| Trust F. Òbe
EXAMPHIVER
The sudden malaria I feel from within Is innocent of a female anopheles For when school pressure volunteers to be the mosquito Stress wilfully becomes the disease That brings this kind of bodily fever
Anxiety is the internal volcano That has chosen this moment to erupt why else do I feel an internal combustion that betrays my inner calm How can words printed on white paper Besiege my memory Threatening my igi iwe to bring forth eso odo
This is the moment and place Where recollection reigns supreme And knowledge is only titular Where current futures may or may not depend On retrieved memories But success will surely come up short In the absence of recollection
NIGHT VISIONS |4| Trust F. Òbe
It has not begun and I am tired already The next few hours feel like a marathon That should explain why my nose is running.
II
Time sits still for a while And suddenly becomes insufficient If the pen was truly mightier than the sword My inner Genghis Khan should do this writing Memory should bear his armour And Recollection should give him counsel In this war that fought mainly on papers Where mighty ones often falter And various GPs meet their maker
Get or be gotten Let exam sheets recite the Lord’s Prayer Hallowed be my scores My will be done on these sheets These questions lead me to temptation But I lead them back, To their cremation Deliver me from E-portal For if ink is blood
NIGHT VISIONS |5| Trust F. Òbe
I have formed an alliance with my pen(cil) I am guilty of bloodshed
Exam is labour period, Memory is a midwife. The fifth alphabet is closest to a stillbirth An F is the Ultimate miscarriage That screams fervently in my face That If I still want something out of this, I will have to do it again!
NIGHT VISIONS |6| Kemi Falodun
TALES
I am not the answer But I will lend my good ear To the tales you tell
Your feet tell tales of the first becoming last And past champions begging for a space This race, is an ancestor of NUGA Where all you do is drop the books And lace the boots
Your eyes tell tales of this virulent disease That has put your overwrought soul in quarantine Shutting your eyes from the rays Of morning sun gently caressing your face You look but cannot see
I am not the answer But I will lend my good ear
Your calloused hands tell tales Of the pain you have held on to More than your calloused hands, Life is harder
NIGHT VISIONS |7| Kemi Falodun
But if you love her enough You would embrace her and Put a diamond ring on her finger
Your lips tell tales of deceitful tongues And hearts saturated by indifference Flocking around you Like those winged creatures in Oba Awon University Time lost Emotions wasted Efforts evaporated – your lips say I cannot tell why monsters persist And why the innocent cease to exist
I hope you will summon courage to tell these tales And not let these tales tell you I hope when you finally tell these tales It will be to the living And not to the dead
I am not the answer But I will lend my good ear To the tales you are yet to tell
NIGHT VISIONS |8| Trust F. Òbe
DEPARTURE We all never finish together, whether in life or school–Damilola Yakubu. (for ‘dàmölá and Moyõ)
I.
Friendship made in school, when sweet Is on a par with mother’s food Distance is a male despot, the hypocritical father of gradual separation.
Moments before departure are fraught, with emotions fast-paced, like action scenes laced with tacit incredulity that is nondescript Should one cave in to a haunting breakdown, Or mask emotions in a fake calm?
Promises of keeping in touch made Like newly introduced cousins But when distance harasses close friendship It’s then affection becomes relegated To spectator from participant A shared bond is mutually betrayed And good times are bound by time and cast Into the jail of memories
NIGHT VISIONS |9| Trust F. Òbe
Pleasurable companionship reduced To voyeuristic recollections
Voyeuristic recollections of memories.
Memories that last longer
Longer than the moments that birthed them
II. Togetherness guarantees a kind of safety taken for granted like electricity in OAU the departure of a dear friend is never timely voicelessly whispering out in reminder how death splits asunder
When time finally connives with distance Their fornication guarantees an alliance Against friendship made over time– and betrayed by time To distance.
Life feels like a cancelled TV show, when friends depart as quickly as a careful whisper
NIGHT VISIONS |10| Trust F. Òbe
said only once Or as frequently as periods of uninhibited menstruations –of virgins and nuns.
III. Ambition couriers a friendship but distance pays postage And then elopes with time as they hold friendship hostage wihout demanding ransom a narrative - for which ambition is sometimes the exordium but there will be a lot to ask in the end from the duo of distance and time when the future resurrects memories for the sake of questioning when a dead friendship emails the conscience and demand to comprehend
The reality of departure is as apprehensive as The fear of being caught As friendship strong as cast iron gradually corrodes from inside out on exposure to gaseous time in a solution of aqueous distance
Distance seduces a friendship into old age
NIGHT VISIONS |11| Trust F. Òbe
Like a beauty queen 50 years later Victims of distance and time often tell with panic Tales of distance-torn friendships That have sunk into the water of time like the Titanic.
NIGHT VISIONS |12| Temitayo Ogunmokun
SUNSET For Femi Oduola (1989-2011)
I At first, yours was a face among many Trees in a forest of black and white Plying the same route, gyrating to the same beats Reciting the same mantra. Living the same life Then time happened and the veil came off To reveal beneath the calm exterior A gentleman in every sense of the word.
II You were not popular. Few knew your face. Fewer knew your name. You never marched with the wildebeests You were the lagoon in low tide A modest slice of the setting African sun You delighted yourself in the trivial And saw life through a kaleidoscope Of beautifully revolving colours Untainted by ambient distractions. You were a good man.
III You came here to chase your dreams So did I. And hundreds more.
NIGHT VISIONS |13| Temitayo Ogumokun
The world was at your feet it seemed Your innate verve was insanely raw You effortlessly accomplished two Of Ifê’s five arduous phases. Surely, the rest is not worth losing sleep over But of what use is labouring over the fire When the gods are forever poised To dip their rotten hands in our broth And undo without remorse That which we struggled to build?
IV They never saw what happened Only that you dove into that shimmering pool And tarried for longer than usual. When your head broke the waves again, You had become still. A denizen of an extraterrestrial realm Your rose was wilted. Your breath had faded. Your story had ended.
NIGHT VISIONS |14| Mide Benedict Adewumi
ORÓ ÞLÁ, ÕRÕ ÞLÁ, ORÒ ÞLÁ (Huge Pain, Huge Words, Huge Ritual)
(A group of persons appear in black apparel. On their hands are candles with dancing flames that illuminate Their faces which are covered with little white clothes. On the lips of their tongues is a song that is sung When a sun enters into the forest of a terrible night And here again, it is some terrible night.)
Oró þlá lç dá, èéè Oró þlá lç dá, Oró þlá lç dá, èéè Oró þlá lç dá, Êyin tëç pa…
And then severe silence swallowed their sad song Gangrening their surges, planting in its place thoughts That spill out questions mixed by the hands of combined solitude.
Who has the soil received into itself? Who offered him as sacrifice to the soil? Or was he the priest who offered a parrot-headed calabash To himself and led himself to the place where a rope-tie became The remedy to a heart-stabbing emotional tragedy?
NIGHT VISIONS |15| Mide Benedict Adewumi
And there time flung itself back and forth At a point where silence met a stream That led its way to the site of consciousness, Causing time to retell its tale.
Tongues murmured with rumour’s clamour People clustered as the writing got from The toes of the English ravens became known; Another tree has fallen in Great Ifê!
Gloom roamed the free air As ears netted and eyes captured That the fellow had fallen a fibrous fall An entry into death’s cold realm With feet raised above the ground And eyes open as his soul struggled Itself out of his dangling body Borne by the tip of air’s huge finger.
Some said he soiled his soul for a squaw Who pulled the string. With a somatic string Hung upon his door As time weeps and pleads with him
NIGHT VISIONS |16| Mide Benedict Adewumi
He did the abominable–
He enslaved his breath in the dungeons of a vacuumed lung And like that, he became one of them; Those who speak aloud with quietness in their gorges.
(Song comes in again) Oró þlá lç dá, èéè Oró þlá lç dá, Oró þlá lç dá, èéè Oró þlá lç dá, Êyin tëç pa…
(A black-attired being screeches out in pain)
When your feet step on the smooth ancestral sand When your shadow being gets to the twin land Greet them, say us well to them Tell them, pull their ears to hear that– Oró þlá lç dá Tell them that– Õrõ þlá lèyìí Tell them that– Orò þlá lç gbé w’ôgbà ‘Fémi
(Candle lights hang themselves with the rope of darkness And silently, the song continues till silence falls to the night.)
NIGHT VISIONS |17| Trust F. Òbe
ANGLOMOZ (for Labuski)
Anglomoz is a four-unit course Begging to be aced. It’s OAU ultimate search –you need to score high like a crackhead impressing another
It’s a test of your wit There’s no competition – you don’t need Omole’s permit Just ask to take her out – forget the pink rose Dear homebred hermit, you don’t have to propose
Whether standing in front of Moz Or sitting beside a stranger, Inadvertently waiting to dispose Herself to the danger, Of the tales your mouth will soon compose
If you guys meet later, In a hostel, in town or at New Buka Tell her she’s your android phone, the lost bone of your bone You can’t whatsapp without her, you can’t read in white house alone
NIGHT VISIONS |18| Trust F. Òbe
Let her touch your beard, while you search for your lost bone Promise you’ll be her Blackbeard, or her Al Capone.
You’ve aced the course But you will register for it again.
II. He buys you suya with 7up, and eats the onion It’s your brain in the plate he’s serving you your senses sold out in a bargain auction, Emotions in a desolate canyon!
Fishes, caught under trees in dry humps, In corners where bodies become natural iPads to fingers delivering touch gestures Virginity remains intact, as viridity slumps downhill
Reading partners– they begin, from Moz to white house Kissing partners– from the chin– the nose to eyebrows This month, he has been finding it hard to read Next month she would be finding it hard to bleed
NIGHT VISIONS |19| Trust F. Òbe
Black lady with class, comes out of Moz into a waiting car Relation-ships that don’t ever set sail Since either one can always move on When they seek more fun and find none
If you don’t get your future wife at Anglomoz Know there are better failures in life Than sailing through the red sea between Angola and Moz on a phoenix-fated Titanic that will leave emotions in a wreckage. Only to rise and sail away on a new voyage from the harbour of a new session.
NIGHT VISIONS |20| Temitayo Ogunmokun
JAIL BIRDS
We daily throng in twos and threes To lecture halls flung far and wide Spurred by the need to max the fees Our old ones deem fit to provide
Med kids in shiny white lab coats Law folks in native black and white To learn with strain, stale wisdom oats Which quickly fade into the night
We boast of wealth we do not have To Goshen girls and Fine Touch boys And dream of things we’re sore deprived More space, clean floors, and shiny toys
At dusk we return in large droves To Awo’s crowded dreary holes Blackened by fumes from oily stoves And house a dozen battered souls
Our hostel rooms are prison cells With one too many overlords Their walls will soon our story tell Of how we once lived as jail birds.
NIGHT VISIONS |21| NIGHT VISIONS |22| Oke Christopher
FAJ RATS
The airspace of Fajuyi Hall May be owned by bats, Senate may on paper claim the hall, But the land is claimed by rats. “Faj belongs to us” is what they seem to shout When they stare defiantly at us From the insides of our pots. (Senate is oblivious Of the daily battle Between her students and The devious dervish devils That resemble hairy dark cattle) The takeover is an overtly covert one What chances do we have? We are outnumbered ten to one. and they are well-fed, and educated “Wôn þ jç ìwé”. To eat us to ruin they are uniformly dedicated, Crafty creatures of shock and awe, Dark demons that streak past like black lightning in daylight And roll rambunctiously like thunder in dark night.
NIGHT VISIONS |23| Kemi Falodun
TO BE OR NOT TO BE?
Last night We listened to the music Of twilight and waves, To be or not to be, He contemplated
Last night We ate risky with jars of laughter And burnt candles in ODLT He saw a cloud of thick darkness, Hovering over him
Last night At the white wall Our tongues formed words That touched the sky. He wrestled with the nagging shadows
Last night Our feet kissed the floor of Diganga He tied the knot And struggled as life closed in on him.
NIGHT VISIONS |24| Kemi Falodun
Darkness. Silence. Darkness
We had seen him Waving at us Laughing with us We thought he had a soul Where nothing could go wrong.
NIGHT VISIONS |25| NIGHT VISIONS |26| NIGHT VISIONS |27| Mide Benedict Adewumi
THE JOURNEY
If you ever see dusts dance up high To the heel level of skirts and trousers Passing through the sole road Set beside the feminine domain of Alumni Where the bottom of P.G is unclothed – not disgraced…
If you ever set eyes On your body, going high, Setting feet upon solid altitude –sweat beckoner And your experience begs and rolls on the floor of pleads to Seek where you are headed. If your çlëdàá reveals only That a building rests around, where two agelessly aged iron lovers Caress openly while time chariots each moment ahead Then know it is Archi studio, Tireless admirer of the robust behind of Möremí.
But where does this lonely road ever lead? Where banana plants jump from place to place, But what has this mission ever missed? Nothing, lest you do not know, look up! You are steps away from the mountain; One of those mountains of Great Ifê.
NIGHT VISIONS |28| Mide Benedict Adewumi
Please do not fall, gently climb So you can see it all, save a blame
On this mountain lives cassava, mango, grasses and more On this mountain lives bells, Holy water, two places for the Holy one On this mountain- under a mango tree, where God lives Your feet, they say must kiss the soil, save your footwear that has Trekked the road to spider Trekked the road to Road One And torn beyond prestige. So, I pray you, do not dare! Do not fear too, but do not dare! It’s a Holy ground - a place meant for God’s feet to only pound.
On this mountain, you will set your sight On the breadth of OAU’s landmass and the nine belliers of Great Ifê souls. And as eyes proceed beyond the road to gate, Where the totem of Great Ifê With water around its body, Flowing and peeing out itself At the realm of the jubilee garden And the Amphi, Your eyes shall cover too.
NIGHT VISIONS |29| NIGHT VISIONS |30| Kemi Falodun
LABYRINTH
The night opened our eyes To seek answers from pages Of texts that have lost their soul Forgotten like Old Buka’s coat But we must wake up to make up For what chance once denied us
The weak must toughen up Or fall behind
With our sweat Grasses became wet We trotted out of Ajose as humans, not cakes Like Saharan tellurians We were almost baked, for God’s sake!
Two seasons after, a reopened chapter; Sitting where we once sat Cramming what we once crammed Too many souls to remain sad We decorated our failure with ornaments of pride And the nights were alive With the moon in our eyes
NIGHT VISIONS |31| Kemi Falodun
In an oven-ed library Hostile for the life of the mind She lifted her sunken eyes And climbed into her pen Alas! A beautiful blank, her ink birthed “Tobi Akinola, please come explain Aldol Condensation to me. Again,” she said Neither her excess flesh nor her thick black lips Could hide the spasm of fear That lurked beneath her voice As though her reality was her heavy past
This life baffles me! Like those rudderless arrows in resonance
Come, come, my darling Let us send to the seventh hell these organics Inhibiting our Chemistry Making our GPs their own Niagara Falls Let quivers be catalyzed by osculation No need for Viagra Let’s forget about that house with faded white sheet Grind our skins into one piece
NIGHT VISIONS |32| Kemi Falodun
As shudders collide on every moan
And there we were Screaming with all our heart Chemistry sucks And that’s a fact!
NIGHT VISIONS |33| Trust F. Òbe
ISRAELITE JOURNEY (For those who will get delayed)
If freshers are the sons of Jacob Angola must be the Promised Land And Mozambique should flow with milk and honey. The DSA must be your ‘Lord God’ That caused you to take possession of the land That he had promised your forefreshers to give to you and drove the ‘former occupants’ before you but denied you a homewarming party.
Wake up to strange but Soon-to-be-familiar cries “Ç káàárõ, ÿ’ç ma’ fô ‘ÿô!” ‘Dye your jeans!’ of someone tapping you out of sleep ‘It’s time for Morning Devotion’ of your brain waking your body up Since today’s lectures begin at Ajose The fear of standing through a class Is the beginning of rising early.
NIGHT VISIONS |34| Trust F. Òbe
This is not your home from whence you sought escape And the timetable set before you Shall not leave your mouth agape Thou shall not see Angola As a suburban Egypt Or Moz, a residential Babylon For you have not been sold into slavery. You have worked too hard to have A part in this indentured servitude. A Joseph without the brothers Whose exams are married to their own Potiphars How did you not see this coming? Since you’ve had this dream all along.
Your days seem measured out and numbered. Until ASUU comes into play Then you understand the full meaning of ‘indefinite’ And 4+x becomes a realistic equation Days pass by but time stops still And then NASU unites in solidarity And strikes with house arrest As hostels become prisons of learning and culture Gladly presents its evil twin. SUG begins to fight for the oppressed
NIGHT VISIONS |35| Trust F. Òbe
And you’re sent home. –– When you find out That SSANU will be going on strike It either feels like A satisfactory lunch break Or a quiet storm In a broken teacup.
Honorary doctorates awaits our heroes Who have suffered more than two ASUU strikes. But remember Graduation is not the end. You’re just a pilgrim Who just got to Jerusalem. Control your relief and ask yourself, “When will I end my Israelite journey?”
NIGHT VISIONS |36| Mide Benedict Adewumi
TAAN GBORO! (MUSICAL JUSTICE)
Gbagada! Gbem! Gbem! Gbammmm!
Vibrating rusted iron containers That wrangle to stay as one. From dawn to dusk; their working hours tick Till the smaller ones, The higher demanders come to end-tertain the night-walkers Who wrestle to be end-tertained, or to wave at passing rides.
From 6am, they make their tones From Anglo-Moz they end-tertain, They stop at Awo, they raise their voice, Move to Moremi, they sing a bit Stop at Faj, they sing a while; No bus stop in ETF.
Those permanent staff at SUB, who sing all through Make diversions and at the temporaries they yell, ‘Next Turn, Next Turn!’
NIGHT VISIONS |37| Mide Benedict Adewumi
‘Gate only, No Town, Town Only, No Gate!’ The temporaries move on and stop at bank, where they sing again and end-tertain. From Town – back and forth, the voice of the musical conductors rise:
‘Taan Gboro! Wa wole taan! ‘Taan Gboro! Taan Gboro! Sister, is he a go?!’ “Gate?!” ‘Oya wole pelu changi! Houl your changi!?’ And as this statements drop from their tragi-comic tongues, “I get 1000” ‘Ma wole o; No changi’ Even GTB’s second and third ATM won’t save you “I get hundred naira” ‘No twenty? Ma wole, no entry!’ ‘Se change wa?’ “O wa!” ‘Oya wole’ Then the musical boxes continue their musical farting.
Here, at the realm of musical box and voice Every pocket is the same:
NIGHT VISIONS |38| Mide Benedict Adewumi
Be richer than the rich then it’s your shame, Be poorer than the poor… Don’t go near the box, Else?
Gbagada! Gbem! Gbem! Gbammmm!
Let’s go back again. Taan Gboroooooooo!
NIGHT VISIONS |39| Oke Christopher
IF I WERE YOU (GOD FORBID)
If I were you (God forbid), I would rántí ômô çni tí mo þ ÿe. I would go to church But not too much. If I were you (God forbid), I would leave the lids of water closets in Faj closed. (Sleeping dogs are best left with eyes closed). I would not spend all my money Trying to look like I have money. If I were you (God forbid), I would ask the ones before For advice and realise it is advice and nothing more. I would strive only for balance. (Perfection cannot be found in academic, spiritual or social par- lance.) If I were you (God forbid) I would be wise in Ogba Femi. If I were you (God forbid) I would listen when they say: “Mô ohun tí o þ ÿe o!”
NIGHT VISIONS |40| Temitayo Ogunmokun
SCIENTIFIC MAXIMUM SHISHI
He was led Like a lamb to slaughter. Tossed about between the frenzied mob Like a ship with a broken rudder. Stripped of all but his shorts Dancing in time to drumbeats of shame Touring hostels. Barefoot.
His eyes were wells of blankness Eerily vacuous. His face was a mask of pain. Ugly Art. Swollen lips parted In muted supplication To a deaf god.
His knuckles were swollen. His nose broken. Deep lines crisscrossed his ragged back Meandering streams of purulent sores Welts. Telltale mementos of unjust misery Indelibly etched on skin by the flicker of whips Boots, leather belts, brooms sticks
NIGHT VISIONS |41| Temitayo Ogunmokun
Brandished by jackboots with student ID’s Lady Justice dabbed at the corner of her eyes.
They said his name was Dele Dele stole a Nokia phone, a laptop And a cup of garri In Awo. They also said only SMS would suffice To cleanse him of his sins. Justice is battery Battery is atonement Atonement is a tabula rasa.
Fear trial or fair trial? No one knows for sure. Lady Justice hung her head in shame And wept.
NIGHT VISIONS |42| Kemi Falodun
ROOM FOR RENT
I know you know pain will grow your mortality As you hop in and out of exotic cars As you rattle about things you Acquired laying on your back. Swallow it, please. That information does us no good
I know his empty promises At Maintenance gate at nights Have sent your sense on errand But your mind still tells delusional stories Of a million beautiful pictures
Whole you, plough your route Work your lawn I hope you won’t fade away As the day ascends from you And darkness descends to Hide your nocturnal activities
I hope you do not gaze Into the dark eyes of fauns Thinking they belong to a daemon
NIGHT VISIONS |43| Kemi Falodun
A ghost that would not die, In the end he becomes
As they gather in your abode, next to mine To exchange gists about their last night’s companion What is this smell your room brings into being? This thing that makes you hazy And then blinds you This thing that blows your mind And leaves it blown This thing that takes you higher than life Only to crash you down
Dear Ajike, who have you allowed into your shelter?
NIGHT VISIONS |44| Trust F. Òbe
BLOCK FOUR
Tap water may not be constant in hostels But rain water is a common weed That has found a natural habitat in Block four.
Each heavy downpour takes residents back in time to the very days of Noah. Wake up to the pool under your bunk, bask in the coldness of natural water at your feet, and enjoy the Jacuzzi of your school days. as a cold spring becomes your footstool and you hope silently that this reality was rather a dream.
Water springs forth from walls in middle floor and make mockery of the decades-old decking delivering cold rain water from corners to your doorstep the way campus fellowships deliver invites you must become a student of aquaculture or invest in self-taught Marine Biology for this could be a concrete farmland!
NIGHT VISIONS |45| Trust F. Òbe
Whenever you sincerely wonder whether those water-weakened lintels Would come crashing down (on someone) someday and if that would be the end– Go to the prayer fields at the back of block four, sit on the grass naked and begin to decree “No weapon fashioned against Faj shall prosper!”
NIGHT VISIONS |46| Oke Christopher
PEACE ADDRESS
Great Ifê! Articulate Ifê! Ever-conscious Ifê! Great Ife, articulate Ifê,
The voice you are listening to Is of one crying in the wilderness, Socially and politically known as An activist against juvenile delinquency Disguised as student unionism, An advocate of peace And a prompt school calendar. Great Ifê, articulate Ifê, In the words of the revered Gandhi, “Peace is its own reward” And is peace in itself Sometimes not better than being right? Therefore my brothers and sisters, I posit that the pandemic plague of hooliganism Illusioned as a perennial struggle for rights, Rights that have not been denied us, Is a clog in our conscious, vigilant march Towards academic and cultural enlightenment,
NIGHT VISIONS |47| Oke Christopher
A dangerous distraction destroying The unwise and unwary in our journey on this land. I shall leave you to consider That in place of Aluta continua, We may still stoop to conquer.
NIGHT VISIONS |48| Kemi Falodun
DISCOVERING HOME
It was the night an angel carried me Along with my shaky hands and erratic blinks, Wrinkled skin and feeble knees - he carried me To see the world that has been And the world that could have been
I saw a man who started out as a subtle thought Brimming with life and passion But gradually, the hope he had lost its spine He had connections but not too bright He needed some change to pursue his dreams But Taan gboro drivers had more change than he did
I started seeing in his eyes a need to slap someone His forehead began to form crooked ridges I watched his flame flicker And die from his teardrops
No one ever tells you What it feels like to walk alone
Then I saw a young soul Who constantly lived in his dreams
NIGHT VISIONS |49| Kemi Falodun
He viewed the world through the window of his mind Seeking for something Beyond activities and busyness Beyond business He sought to fix stars in dark horizons Here bats shit on girls who wear sparkling white shirts And skimpy black skirts But in the end, bats shit on men Who die without their legacy
How would bravery have a life If fear had been swallowed by death? To be courageous in the midst of fear Is that not the only way to be brave?
Home is not just a place Home is where your heart lies Home is where you find your voice Home is where you truly live Home is where you truly die Some found theirs in the Pit Some in prints Some in codes
NIGHT VISIONS |50| Kemi Falodun
Home is music Home is fashion Home is poetry
Welcome home!
NIGHT VISIONS |51| Trust F. Òbe
FIRST SEMESTER (for freshers)
I. Welcome to OAU, dear fresher You came for the learning and the culture Not some corrupt peer pressure
First semester is an inferno. Failure is a medusa, residing in its flames You are Perseus in a modern reboot. There’s no rest till you have the Gorgon’s head Until the fire meets with your inner Abednego; And finds you the black doppelgänger of a Hebrew thoroughbred.
The distance between school’s timetable and yours Stretches from Road One to New Market Activities shall offer to amend Your formerly secluded lifestyle ‘Ladies free’ shows and parties Will grant you omnipresence And if you’re the classic introvert Your obsession with eventful idleness Will keep you active– but leave you inert
NIGHT VISIONS |52| Trust F. Òbe
–an unsuspecting catamite.
II. Is it the witches from your village that insist, That you volunteer for activities That would turn out kobo wise But naira foolish Activities that straddle your GPA Before strangling your CGPA Your grades moan out in dismay
If success is your portion in Jesus name Then failure is your portion in the devil’s name For the devil has no record of your test scores Find them on e-portal. He has assigned you instead, To be the architect of your own misfortune He will then determine your score.
You may be chatting with your doomsday If you control time and not yourself The sky may be your limit But OAU is no star trek Success never remains within grasp As often as bad luck and failure do,
NIGHT VISIONS |53| Trust F. Òbe
When they are self-imposed and well-deserved too.
III. Persistence ensures timely promotion From naïve fresher to gullible stalite Since bad habits don’t change overnight Like good habits do in a flash Focus and concentration are conjoined twins You should send them a friend request tonight.
Did you store hay in a big sac of diligence, From sunny nights when candles burned as incense Or have you had some success with failure By self-driving unbeknown Into an academic cul-de-sac of pretense? For time will tell a true account Of your focus or your negligence Of whether Ifê became for you–an end Or a means to an end
IV. Is a poem enough for the wise Or does one have to read this twice?
NIGHT VISIONS |54| Oke Christopher
SHOCK AND SHAME
Have you ever felt shock and shame in the presence of God? Not because Jehovah exposed your perversions To your fellowship pastor Or because your subgroup head Found your stash of pornography Carefully hidden in the fellowship flash But because the sister in the Lord That sucked your face till your lips Were soft and swollen At Motion ground the night before Said to you with her holy hands hanging by her side “You can’t hug me, we are in church.”
NIGHT VISIONS |55| Kemi Falodun
EQUANIMITY
Here is where the world is under your feet Here is where you release stress And receive ease Where you speak beyond talking Where your anxieties are deposited in your handbag Not to be withdrawn till you depart. Be it your aching back stretched on Road One by 12am Sitting on your ledge of solitude On the bridge Ibadan Road shelters Taking your regular solitary visits To the roof of White house
You are certain to do one thing;
Breathe…
NIGHT VISIONS |56| Temitayo Ogunmokun
I DO NOT READ*
Now that we’re done and exams knock I dread the size of our course work But I will bank on your good luck I swear to God, I haven’t read!
But you were there in every class And all your tests, you aced en masse You never had a meagre pass I freestyled all. I never read.
You spend days locked in Pharmacy And hold night rounds at Chemistry You rarely leave the school library I went to sleep. I could not read.
Your books rival Senate in height And handouts make us gasp in fright Your jottings nearly blur one’s sight All untouched sheets I’m yet to read
You ‘pammed’ A’s in Tax and Labour And made light work of Company Law The other ones you devoured raw
NIGHT VISIONS |57| Temitayo Ogunmokun
Must be sheer luck. I did not read.
My friend, one day I pray you’ll tell How you don’t read and pass so well I know it sounds like I mislead I can’t explain. I do not read.
*The average OAU student will claim they haven’t read anything, no matter how hard or how long they have. –Hannah Onifade
NIGHT VISIONS |58| Mide Benedict Adewumi
THE THREE ON A TREE
In the evening At a time when tiredness Like the skin of a chameleon Wore itself on me, And sleepiness coiled itself round me, I cupped up all hope to see myself at gate But as this sight came in to dominate, My legs entered into the hole Set by a surprising pause: For I had looked into the sky And found----
Though it profusely banged, Rhythm of great Ifê ones, Mingling with the tones of Bus drivers, Screeching “Taan” and “Gate” But in my ears, all went silent. For the first time Among many, I noticed a scene unseen Set before SUB’s very watch:
It was a tree of a living three,
NIGHT VISIONS |59| Mide Benedict Adewumi
And the tree was huge And it was tall And it was full: And they were birds And they were bats And they were nests And they were bats Living in peace and harmony.
And it came like a sharp pinch in my heart Drawing back my spirit to the home of souls Where skirts and trousers cohere: And they are lads And they are lads And they are dames And they are dames But it is fight And it is fight Living with them.
If not dirty water falling from above, And mighty curses rising from below, It would be beefing frowns from beside, And beefing smiles from behind.
NIGHT VISIONS |60| Kemi Falodun
TODAY, WE TREK
Exudates run down the faces of the horde As they chant and pant, hoping to be heard In troubled times; people never await the best They swiftly seek the loudest Who says radical isn’t the new black?
I hear the waters screaming for freedom Along the long snaky road where Frustration makes beasts of faces with Lips aching and cracking and bleeding
Diverse shapes and sizes and gaits In Brownian motion at the gateway Tongues wagging and spitting Account for undistributed rights Today, Taan gboro cannot work
They say their women are ovary-acting The men are men-straining Children are impregnated with hunger Repeated history after history
Today, Taan Gboro will not come in
NIGHT VISIONS |61| Kemi Falodun
Bablo will not cave in Ten asterisks shall be your portion If by fate or choice you are found wanting Today, we trek.
NIGHT VISIONS |62| Temitayo Ogunmokun
OBLIVION
Hands in hands, lips on lips Heartbeats thrumming in time The patter of our feet on hard tarmac is lost In the billowing Ifê wind at dusk My lover’s sensuous breath Intermittently fans the nape of my neck. Little pieces of her, forever trapped in my pores Transport by meandering rivulets of sweat Titillating cold streams on my arced spine, Set my skin alight. In the benign cloak availed by darkness We kiss, explore and kiss again We interlock our souls And make promises of eternity. As we trudge down Archi road Oblivious to the hoots of intrusive owls And other eerie nocturnal sounds Our senses are shut to the echoing chatter Of worldly distractions. Somewhere, in a parallel universe The rest of the world is relentlessly caught In a smothering web of upheavals But in this instant moment, I’ll savour
NIGHT VISIONS |63| Temitayo Ogunmokun
The soothing embrace of my lover’s arms. I’m lost in her world. And she in mine.
NIGHT VISIONS |64| Oke Christopher
BROTHERS’ BOND
The bond between two guys That have never met, That could never have, Because one lives in Fine Touch And the other in Mayfair, Is in the inflamed vessels of their eyes, The herbal stench of their persons, The slow fuzzy rotation of their earths; It is in the calm voice that says to them: “That is your brother.”
NIGHT VISIONS |65| Kemi Falodun
YOU LIVED, YOU LIVE (for George Akinyemi Iwilade ’Afrika’ Students’ Union General Secretary 1998-1999) you filled my silence with your voice and doused the fire of anxiety in my eyes you strengthened my frail knees and on your chest, I gently placed my head to sleep with my two eyes closed you asked questions too heavy for the lips of mere mortals your ears rightly inclined your hands tirelessly dug your eyes relentlessly probed you diced every piece of word and deed. not just papers and ink you were only expected to oversee out of your belly flowed rivers of activism until you stepped on thorns with long fangs that ate
NIGHT VISIONS |66| Kemi Falodun
into your skin one dark morning before the sun crept above the horizon they smuggled their way through an already cleared path from above your abode in Awo could not keep evil from walking through the walls he cried your name he cried your name you slept he kicked your leg he slapped your face unprepared to say hello to death but seamed eyelids gave you away grave sneaked into your bed slugs eluded your mortality blades left your limbs strewn like leaves in harmattan season revealing unreason; the fragments of your bones and flesh of your hopes and dreams
NIGHT VISIONS |67| Kemi Falodun
time is never sufficient for those who need it my land still absorbs heat of wicks lit for you at the heart of Anglo-Moz my soil still holds the feet of souls who scavenge details of your abrupt grisly end my walls still hold on to the truth your sturdy hands held on to your blood still runs through my veins
Afrika, the receiver of my memories
NIGHT VISIONS |68| Trust F. Òbe
OAU MEDLEY
Hostels are ladies, Moremi is the most glamorous, Terrestrial Wi-Fi connecting academics to halls Residential bridge between work and play Home to princesses and queens, Anglomoz for the elite stalite, Moremi is a love song by Marvin Gaye. There are two versions of a Moremi lady The khaleesi– and the cliché.
If hostels were phones, FAJ would be the Motorola Blade Rumours abound that her glory Is on loan to ETF And in profound appreciation ETF lets them have timed trysts. Your tongue has a date with Iya Yetunde’s roast plantain And the remaining peanuts in your locker Are destined for a date with Some Garri and Uthman’s suya Or Meat, Fish and ponmo with fries From the white tent of Mr. Michael
NIGHT VISIONS |69| Trust F. Òbe
Wolemusic is Netflix And the Lower Buttery is a hero unsung– Customer service as lovely as Hong-Kong Upper Buttery tells the difference Between Selena Gomez and Nicki Minaj.
II. Mornings that smell of sedentary safety And nights of risky burger Time bends to your will Reminding you the lost boundary Between OAU’s day and night In the end we’re found greedy And time is ever not enough.
OAU’s beauty is heard from near and seen from faraway a self-sustaining economy where New Market is Dubai.
When you hear separate accounts of life in OAU Your school days begin to feel like a tutorial – But you silently wish too That ‘if you could school anew– You would come to OAU’.
NIGHT VISIONS |70| Temitayo Ogunmokun
SENTINELS
The blazing sun ebbs and darkness falls It’s dusk: Nature’s constant cue Of cessation to all toil Odùduwà waves his wand And Orion appears, his starry brothers in tow Etching enthralling starry patterns Over the blue Ifê skyline In the crowded cubicles of Angola and Awo, Mere mortals strike various poses of somnolence Corpses for the night But we do not sleep
We throw Mock salutes to initiate Our nightly fire brigade sessions. In our caffeine induced haze, we stare At recherché texts in abstruse fonts Shoulders hunched over moth eaten Ajose tables Traipsing through miles of academic antiquity Fuelled by paper cups of Kay’s tepid coffee We jerk rhythmically to the drone of mosquitoes While lazily swatting at the miniscule vampires: Our divinely appointed bane. The nocturnal routine is interspersed
NIGHT VISIONS |71| Temitayo Ogunmokun
With flirtations from fellow nightwalkers, The ones who never sleep. The languid tunes wafting from pit theatre Bring sleep on their trails And the ethereal serenity of the yard Lulls mortals to bed But we do not sleep.
We are the renowned Fire Brigadiers Revered by the uninitiated. We are the incorrigible crash readers Veritable enigmas of Ifê We are the immortals Who cheat nature with impunity We are the sentinels of dusk We do not sleep.
NIGHT VISIONS |72| Kemi Falodun
COMMUNION
I breathed you in the wind I found symphony on your lips Many times, you came visiting my dreams As darkness hibernated our loneliness Like butlers of eternal wine
I learnt you, I learnt you I saw the stars in your eyes When you saw the face of fun I studied the flutters of your heart When doubts and fears took turns
I know you, I know you I found home in your arms And solace holding your hands I learnt you, I learnt you Still you were a puzzle!
I listened to your stuttering laughter To the voice of your soul To love, or not to love Sharing feelings. Sharing space When words melt away like Icarus’ wings
NIGHT VISIONS |73| Kemi Falodun
Your silence. Your distance Accosted with many twisted blocks Like Health Sciences rooftop
Mutually shared emotions and heartbreaks Made the heart long for the body The ghosts claiming rights in our memories, Like fingers under skirts in Motion Ground Were probably chilling with other gods in New Buka
II Fear of uncertainty presented you the inability To build the building blocks of love My heart once throbbed with nagging knocks But now the memories are all there are Those dreams have now gone on a long walk
Wars are expensive Our solitude our undoing Our union. Communion, A word that only has meaning To you and me
NIGHT VISIONS |74| Mide Benedict Adewumi
AMPHI MEMORIAL
Like a known vision, It appears now before me, Scenes of gone times, Scenes of gone days, For the river of time flows it backward, again!
I For hours I stood Courting sweet words and harsh rods Watching how thumb seekers and sought-afters Danced round the millipede stage of the ancient wall.
“NO! NO! NO!...” “Ç ÿé ò, Ç ÿé ò, Ç wá maa lô!”
I saw how men’s charisma were smoked out of their abode. Saw how toothed tongues, shouting and biting swallowed Another’s Nabothic stability, Vomiting it on another to cup-in more strength. I saw how the future was determined by few ticks Of struggling moves, maintained by torn and knitted words.
As they continued to speak
NIGHT VISIONS |75| Mide Benedict Adewumi
Making words flush from the raked seats of Amphi Down to the dooming podium of Kabooms! Where thumb seekers were called out to speak, I stood with my being in the midst of salivas, Unshaken but viewing and drinking Down experience that would one day be owned By my buried memory.
II I hear it again: “Greateeeest Ifê! Articulaaaaate Ifê!” As it came one after one, The strong sound of the tough men, Breaking mountain–mouthed souls, Capturing hearts and also roles, Taming them with joy as they laughed out too. Seven men – Seven choices All wanting to be the ààrë And each came forth, As their lives were rendered On white paper To say poundingly... “Of the Greatest Ifê!”
NIGHT VISIONS |76| Mide Benedict Adewumi
I heard the sound of tough women: The Precious and The Musical drama, Pearl and Oprah’s campaigning grammar And again it came: Of the Greatest Ifê! Articulate Ifê! Greatest Gbàgbà! Greatest Gbògbò! It was there the hearts of many chose What would wind their tomorrow’s wing.
III Rising voices Hurting Teeth Baleful shoutings Disruptive Cries All foreran A New phase And new faces As Ifê picked...
“Greateeeest Ifê! Articulaaaaate Ifê!”
At the birth of the following day
NIGHT VISIONS |77| Mide Benedict Adewumi
I heard that some had taken the knife of slaughter And bladed themselves with their own words– And fell at the firing of their own futile guns. Like Suns from East and West, They adored the Northern Sun.
“Greateeeest Ifê! Articulaaaaate Ifê!”
At the end, The bespectacled became the ààrë while It echoed through vibrant rocks, The voice of Pearl.
“Of the greatest Ifê!” “Articulate Ifê!” “Greatest Gbàgbà!! “Greatest Gbògbò!!!
NIGHT VISIONS |78| BONUS SECTION
NIGHT VISIONS |79| Mide Benedict Adewumi
LAST NIGHT (For Pius Agidigbi)
In the belly of the night When lightless sights weakened our delight And legs strolled from place to place, There I saw him along the path Where we did our parts that night.
I saw him last night, When I, an itinerant and partner to the wind, A mind-mingler with pregnant thoughts Walked along that path, that was once Illuminated by burning candles, Dancing left to right with fire On their thready bones.
That road calls back cracked memories Of a colleague, who wrestled with life Till he joined the immaterial bodies Living under the wet shoe of trees.
He struck us deeply And left us weeping. Copak, but you said you will not park
NIGHT VISIONS |80| Mide Benedict Adewumi
And you parked before the moon-dog of the heavens Could bark at the earth. Copak, you said we would wear it together, The flowing gowns of successful years, But you wore yours earlier; Broke into the store of immortal homes, Took a different gown, and left us to move Life’s heavy stone alone. And never saw you, Until I saw you last night.
Copak, will I see you again When this immense eclipse passes? No and yes! Both? Te…ea...r...tear...tears.... Tears have tor..rn...torn our hea- rts apa- rt, Buh...bu... but... We will see where time’s count is endless.
NIGHT VISIONS |81| Oke Christopher
ART
I want to teach you, I want to guide you, I want to remind you, I want to make you feel, I want to make you reel. I want to make you see Outside the world you know. I want you to see The things that were, are and will be. I want to show you pain, I want to show you laughter, I want to show you what comes after You endure great pain. I want to show you love, I want to show you hate, I want to show you grace, I want to show you the grace in awkward pace. I want to make you fly With your feet on the ground, I want to show you life. I am art I want you to see me everytime you turn around.
NIGHT VISIONS |82| Mide Benedict Adewumi
TO RAPES FROM APES
We all know what happens When a woman is torn by force She will become the talk of the town, The caution every woman must take.
We all know what happens When a woman is being doubled Out of wedlock: She’s called ashawo, A disgrace by those who know her and don’t. She will become The caution every woman must take.
But what will become of Her Who was forced open Who was then doubled But refused to bury her maternal cry, And becomes a mother. What will people say of her? What caution would every woman take? What life will she live in life? Even her tears cannot mend her tear.
NIGHT VISIONS |83| Trust F. Òbe
BLINDFOLDED LOVER
Money can fuel a love affair, but when money became the fire, I was not aware Your greed was always the fuel Your deception and my desire Caught in a natural duel A love that meant life to one And death to the other.
I began to hiberdate, When I discarded my friends for a lady, Whose oxygen was money. If I had spent that much naira, I have put our love on a scholarship, I called you honey Since I couldn’t yet see you As the bee that you were
Your touch split my emotions Like the red sea As I appointed you my Moses I could not reach the Promised Land Because you stung me hard
NIGHT VISIONS |84| Trust F. Òbe
Like the raging bee that you were
Your idea of love punctured my senses And left my brain a flat tyre Since God’s time was no longer the best My doom loomed in the lonely hour
When you baked my heart in love’s fire It became your fruitcake When it passed through your lies’ furnace It screamed like a town crier You gave me a heartburn And then a heartbreak
I should have called a ceasefire Before I became hit by financial AIDS Coupled with savings Ebola In a love that was so sick Money had been its life support
My gullibility made love to your subterfuge Behind my brain’s back Their liaison birthed our love One that concealed an attack Until it was too late to realise That I had been your bitch all along.
NIGHT VISIONS |85| Temitayo Ogunmokun
DEVOURED IN MY SLEEP
Deeply ensconced in the tranquility of sleep; Trapped in an abyss where no thoughts flow; Up my spine, snouted demons boldly creep; On my digits, some unknown creatures blow.
Fangs unsheathed; poised to take a bite; Famished ghouls on a hunger sating quest; Set into motion at the advent of the night By rabid pests at Mother Nature’s behest.
Rats – vile, vicious, voracious vermin. Uninvited guests at my Angola space. Etching arcane signs on my flawless skin – Telltale mementos of a madly abstruse race.
One invariably won by these intrepid beasts, That deem me the sole menu of their horrid feast.
NIGHT VISIONS |86| Trust F. Òbe
THOUGHTS
I think thoughts of you Thoughts of us.
Soaring thoughts that put me in the cockpit Of the airplane of other thoughts Searing thoughts I put in the cesspit In the sewer for discarded thoughts Thoughts of you.
Thoughts we share in a telepathic sphere Thoughts that prefer no one to you Thoughts of you and I that I self-taught Thoughts that demand no one but you Thoughts of us.
Loneliness invades my mind’s resort Threatening to cripple my mind And finds itself detained by thoughts That question my mind and report to my brain Questionnaire thoughts.
Thoughts I learned from looking in your eyes Thoughts that control the rhythm of my heart
NIGHT VISIONS |87| Trust F. Òbe
Self-assured thoughts that forbid thinking twice Thoughts that find me guilty of why we are apart Thoughts of you
Thoughts I exile, Thoughts I exhale, Thoughts I consign to my nose And then inhale
Thoughts that insist on paying the price Of emotions for which words would not suffice Thoughts that mentor my mind with romantic advice Thoughts that go viral, and metastasize, Thoughts of us.
Thoughts that don’t fully describe me -without you Thoughts that guarantee eternal safety -within you Thoughts that feel like you know me inside-out Thoughts that fill in for you, and kiss my mouth Thoughts of you.
Johnny Depp thoughts of finding Neverland Beautiful thoughts of triplet kids
NIGHT VISIONS |88| Trust F. Òbe
Thoughts flying around in my mind–hoping to never land Thoughts of spending honeymoon in a resort, Breathing air that’s Madrid’s Thoughts of us.
NIGHT VISIONS |89| Kemi Falodun
SIDELINES
Your yesterday is a story That can only be told with heavy words
Your present is a path less travelled by Living distractedly Schizophrenia, your birthright
Your future is a dance of cycles Of blurry uncertainties
Your creativity is your doom Your boom
Give me your loneliness Let me acquaint you with stars and you Show your heroic propensity
But your race is yours to run I will only be on the sidelines Prodding you on.
NIGHT VISIONS |90| Oke Christopher
TO BE A MAN
My son, do not be over-eager To be a man, to grow old; With it comes hardship untold, With age, worries get bigger Because as you conquer a decade, Another will rise to take its place, As you leave a demon’s place, Seven will rise to make a blockade. So my son, be patient, Learn to learn what you can, It is no small task to be a man. It is better not to sin than to repent, So be wise; Learn, prepare, and be ready, Engage in meaningful enterprise, For with those beards come great responsibility
NIGHT VISIONS |91| Kemi Falodun
BOULEVARD
I was at a point Where three paths diverged One to the left With green trees Green grass And birds chirping One to the right With purple lawn Purple trees And the one behind me With trees that have shed their coats Boulevard of uncertainties I knew I would walk alone But I chose to walk On the road with no absolutes On and on I went Jumping into a stream With rays of sunlight That gave me a shred of hope On this bare road Laughing and giggling Blooming with life And passion
NIGHT VISIONS |92| Kemi Falodun
As the warmth cascaded over me Coming out I realised I was still alone Drenched in my memories I had a war with my emotions Hoping it would not percolate Into the future As I looked back I heard the stream say Goodbye But what is good in goodbye? Au revoir I whispered back Hoping the French appeal Would make the parting Hurt a little less
NIGHT VISIONS |93| Mide Benedict Adewumi
GOOD IS EVIL
Good is good Bad is bad Good is bad Bad is good Evil is as sweet as the good it does Good is as bitter as the evil it does Good is as good as the good it does Evil is as evil as the evil does. Don’t judge me I won’t judge you
A man dies to live A man lives to later die.
Taste the bitterness of bile It’s as sweet as fresh honey In the mouth of pleasers. Take sweetness, touch its skin Smooth, yes, take it to mouth and taste it. How does it feel? As bitter as nothing else?
Love is the hatred of a mind
NIGHT VISIONS |94| Mide Benedict Adewumi
And hatred is the love dwelling in another’s chest. Don’t judge me I won’t judge you.
A prophet, in his land is unknown But in an alien’s he’s listened to. The faeces of man is trouble to another man The faeces of an owner is trouble to the owner, But is it not joy to flies And blessing to maggots? Don’t judge me!
What you like is hatred to me, I won’t judge you, What I hate is likeness to you. Don’t judge me.
The fatness of a woman Is the glamour I seek. The skinny is a paradise of fat. Just don’t judge me And I won’t judge you.
NIGHT VISIONS |95| Oke Christopher
AŞAKĘ
Aşakę, I sought to Know what love is That I may give you The very best of mine And I heard it’s not the fire That burns in my eyes and chest That consumes me to possess you, I heard it’s not The grotesque shapes Our loins and groins take That leave us panting and happy. I heard it’s not really Wanting all you want for you Because you want them, I heard love is a choice And I choose you Aşakę; I choose you.
NIGHT VISIONS |96| Mide Benedict Adewumi
A SOUL’S PRAYER
Others- Today, hearts tie their love as one
Us- Today, you still play my heart for fun.
Smiles- Tomorrow, may this misery not be our tale.
Frowns- Or perhaps, we shall die as stale?
NIGHT VISIONS |97| Trust F. Òbe
HOPE (for those holding on)
Pain is a casket, Grief is a tomb, Surrender is death.
I cram uncertainty into every passing moment As we are nothing but a bunch of probabilities.
I must run faster. Lest my sins catch up with me
They will call me in for a session. And demand a ransom
II. When things are not what they seem Like Identical twins born of a threesome.
The more I look the less I see The more I see the less I know The more I know the less I can explain
I know more than I did when I came here than I do now
NIGHT VISIONS |98| Trust F. Òbe
I see less than I did when I came here than I do now.
I conceal my fears like a genital wart
Pain is a casket, Grief is a tomb
And death sends me a ‘get-well’ note
But surrender is death. Hope is the antidote.
NIGHT VISIONS |99| Kemi Falodun
A LONG DEAD PUPPY
I watched your tear drop And tried to retrace it into your tear duct I wanted to see What could have been
Your lips gave account of slobbering honey And unforgettable kisses Your eyes tried to hide The days you have seen him in others With your kind of anatomy Your hands covered his lies Holding on to the thorns as they tore your flesh
But your concealer – it gave you away When its curtains opened The bruises and scars that graced your face Showed me the path that put you to race His hands had smothered your image His hormones ruptured your grace
But the scars didn’t totally Put you to race So here we are
NIGHT VISIONS |100| Kemi Falodun
With your lips still telling tales Of slobbering honey And unforgettable kisses Here we are Still stroking a long dead puppy
NIGHT VISIONS |101| Mide Benedict Adewumi
SPRITE OF THE IROKO
Hear it here and hear it there!
The sprite of the Iroko, The one whose voice, silent as a bang- kabhum!!! Draws attention in the stomach of the forest- resounding ech...ech.... Echos...! Who avowed: No wind shall wind my stand Nor make my deep roots weep their shakes,
Pause! Why then have you become the wool of the sky, Blown from one end to another with might? Why then have you become the lifeless leaf, Fallen upon the sweat of the sea’s soil and Carried from end to end By the muscled wave of the marine.
What a sha... shame...! Sprite of Iroko, I weep for you You have slept while awake You have died while you make sounds in the stomach of the forest. You have oppressed yourself, You spiritless spirited soul;
NIGHT VISIONS |102| Mide Benedict Adewumi
Echo of the Iroko. You have become the one whose home Lies flat like the body of powerful Basha in the grave.
Soon, I tell you, Hear it here and hear it there, The grass will have a sprite too And....
NIGHT VISIONS |103| Trust F. Òbe
BREAK FEAR (for ‘Seun Osoniyi)
A violent fight is a silent death A broken rib is a broken heart Death comes in many forms Fear is one of many norms
A silent Fight or a violent death? A broken rib or a broken heart? A violent fight or a silent death?
One thousand forms of fear Each carving a major tear One thousand forms of fear Each prodding a well of tears
Each form poking the bear Stabbing you from the rear Each birthing other forms of fear Only affording you the choice Between when and where
Every lost fight is a silent death Every heartbreak is a lost fight
NIGHT VISIONS |104| Trust F. Òbe
Every form of death is a heartbreak Each form of fear has the same tone This form of fear is a bequest from death
Where fear is the norm, there tear forms Breaking the fear prevents the tear Have a heart of bone, don’t let it break Hate your own fear, even if you have to love pain
Do not fear your fear’s death Leave its heart in disrepair Bid your fear a broken heart Let it die a broken death
A violent fight is NOT a silent death A broken mind is a broken rib And a broken heart Death does come in many forms But fear is NOT one of the many norms
Broken death Unbroken strength Breaking fear. Broken (by) fear Choose (my) dear.
NIGHT VISIONS |105| PHOTOGRAPH SECTION
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T.F.Ò & K.F July 7, 2015.
NIGHT VISIONS |159| GLOSSARY Ajike: Hostel at Maintenance. Ajose: Lecture theatre in OAU, named after the first VC. Amphi: Amphitheatre, OAU Anglomoz: Car park between Angola & Mozambique Halls. Angola: Male hall of residence mainly for Freshers. Archi studio: Studio for Architecture Students, around Moremi. Awo: Male Hall of residence named after Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Awoite: Resident of Awo Hall. Diganga: A hotel in Ibadan Road. Eledaa: Yoruba term for creator, used here loosely to mean ‘head’. Eportal: OAU’s web portal for student academic affairs. ETF: Male residential Hall in OAU, adjacent New Buka. Faj: Male residential Hall in OAU, named after Adekunle Fajuyi. Moremi: Female residential Hall in OAU, famed for being premier. Motion Ground: (see pg. 151). Mozambique (Moz): Female residential Hall in OAU, mainly for fresh- ers. New Buka: A number of eateries and bars adjacent ETF hall. ODLT: Oduduwa Lecture Theatre. Odùduwà: Either of eponymous hall or the statue of the legend. Ogbà ‘Fémi: OAU Campus. Old Buka: Former location for shops, eateries and market. Oluwasanmi Hezekiah: Obafemi Awolowo University Library. PG: Postgraduate Students Residential Hall, OAU. Risky or Risky Burger: Universal egg and bread toast in OAU. Road One: The road stretching from Campus gate to Bus stop, SUB. Scientific Maximum Shishi (SMS): A set of corporal punishments for
NIGHT VISIONS |160| student misdemeanour. Senate: OAU senate or the Senate building itself. Spider: Spider Building, OAU. SUB: Student Union Building. Taan Gboro: Commercial buses. White House: Departmental building for four science departments. White Wall: Wall at sports complex regularly used for praying.
NIGHT VISIONS |161| CONTRIBUTORS
MIDE KEMI BENEDICT FALODUN ADEWUMI
Mide Benedict Adewumi is a writer who purges words through the genres Kemi Falodun is a lover of words with a penchant for learning. She of poetry, drama and prose. He is a 400 level literature student of Obafemi believes everyone has a vantage point to every situation and she wants Awolowo University Ile-Ife. to tell hers in her writing. She is currently working on becoming a He blogs at Temple of Words voice to reckon with in the literary scene. She is a student of Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, who still lives with the hope of learning to ride a bicycle someday. When she is not in the laboratory cultur- ing microorganisms, she is somewhere feeding her curious mind with books, playing chess, writing or making pancakes. She blogs at www. kemifalodun.com. NIGHT VISIONS |162| Lekan Osundina OLALEKAN OSUNDINA TRUST F. ÒBE
Olalekan Osundina is a photographer with a penchant for telling stories. To him, photography transcends the clicking of a shutter button and the point- Trust F. Òbe identifies with words more than ing of the camera, as the camera is the surgical blade and the paint brush and any other art form. When not lazing around in the telescope. To him, photography is both science and art. his own thoughts or sleeping, he spends more He hails from Oyo State. Never one to shy away from challenges, he constant- time on the screen than anywhere else. He draws ly battles with the unjust intrusion of ignorant opinions in the society and influences from friends and family as well as the limitation of thoughts of the modern day Nigerian youth. people he hasn’t met. He likes Johnny Depp and He holds a B.A (hons) in Literature-in-English from Obafemi Awolowo Uni- Emeli Sandé. @whisper2trust versity. He currently works at Osun State Broadcasting Corporation. www. lekanosundina.com. NIGHT VISIONS |163| Lekan Osundina TEMITAYO OGUNMOKUN OKE CHRISTOPHER
Temitayo Ogunmokun is a graduate of the faculty of law, OAU whose literary proclinations have been influenced more by Stephen King Oke Christopher is a man devoted to recording his than any other author alive. He is a writer and poet affiliate of certain thoughts, experiences and stories in poetry. He loves to international and domestic organisations including YALDA, CLIQUE learn, laugh and eat. Follow him on Instagram @okechris- Africa, Elev8 Mag, and a number of others. He’s an advocate of cre- topher +2348073824310. ative writing development and a firm believer in Murphy’s law. He blogs via teebabz.wordpress.com and can be tweeted at @Tbabz__
NIGHT VISIONS |164| Lekan Osundina APPRECIATION The editors would like to thank the contributors, Olalekan Osundi- na, Christopher Oke, Mide Benedict Adewumi and Temitayo Ogunmokun for their determined sacrifices. We are indebted to the Head of Corpo- rate Affairs, OAU who made our official requests as effortless as possi- ble. We thank Mr. Adegbenjo of the QRS office, for his immense and un- wavering support. Mr Olaleye of the office of the CSO was selfless and dutiful during our photoshoot. Damilola Akinluyi, Ayobola Eniola and ‘Tobi Alese for being readily available and supportive when we needed them. Innocent, for all the trouble he gave us before each piece of val- uable guidance he would later come to offer, and Tomi Aluko, for her eyes that saw beyond the words.
The entire team of Sandstorms In June, for doing this before us, subliminally and inadvertently telling us what to do.
and to God, for making things happen-for making this happen.
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