ODIA OFEIMUN
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Sermon of the King Hornsman
Teacher don teach me nonsense: to look and laugh And perambulate till trouble comes like ‘expensive shit’ Spattering our Sunday best and riling the skin like yellow fever – see why blackman dey suffer! ‘swamped’ in dirty sweat that peppers vision
Teacher don teach me to stumble and fret, as style And to bow, no, to prostrate to the latest minion, VIP of the block , to whom we make rankiya dade we salaam and shuffer and shmile in Jungle City toasting overcrowded molues, overcrowded prisons
We go on wheels headed for the boil of the lagoon, Where tribes and moieties lose self in a stalemate of jobless lives itching to correct alleys of fear through broken speed-limits and nighttime markets where policemen collect toll for the Most High Boss
Still, war-mongers of the old colony, we pinch Snuff and pennies and farthings from last hurrahs At crossroads where the Unknown Soldier hits high
© Of Minstrelsy and Masks: The Legacy of Ezenwa–Ohaeto in Nigerian Writing, ed. Christine Matzke, Aderemi Raji–Oyelade & Geoffrey V. Davis (Matatu 33; Amsterdam & New York NY: Editions Rodopi, 2006).