80% perspiration

Teaching, for most graduates in Nigeria, is the most thankless job ever. There is no appreciation for molding kids into better members of the society. This has discouraged a lot of young men and women, including trained teachers, from venturing into that area of specialization. The joy of seeing a student achieve greatness can never be quantified though. It is this pleasure, that we can then consider to be true blessing for a teacher.

Broken Mirror Twisted cowries at my feet; The eyes of the gods are red-rimmed. The chalk encircles the window That looks deep into the fiery depths. The tom-tom ululates my thoughts, Fear stretch cold dark fingers in.

Purple haze in the sky, Blanketing the world In diamond studded velvet glow. The tender breeze caresses, Teasing and erasing the stress The sweaty and stifling sun Brought to the blue green world.

  Overdose The light bulb blinked on And took a look at the floor, Filled with the debris of the night before: The table, packed full; Two bottles; red wine and two glasses, A line of coke, wrapped weed and smokes The splayed ankles of the model, Panties hanging like an ankle chain on one. Music spilling from throbbing speakers. What a party!

Do you remember me? I was the breeze that blew your sails As it billowed across uncharted seas In lecture halls and libraries. I was the candle flame that drove away The cobwebs of ignorance And grooves of darkness That shunned the illumination That Alexandria’s Lighthouse promised.

A slice of lemon shaped moon Squeezed into the blue gray sky, Eyeing the depressed sun; head bowed. A flicker of starlight Diamonds on velvet hair, Hanging down her back; The moon, I mean. Woven until morn, Waiting for her darling sun, Waiting and waning and wasting away.

I lie in wait, Deep within chill depths. Smoke, drooling from my lips; Chill dew, leaching my skin. Soon, I am chosen. Soon, I am revealed. My innards -spilled; My soul -emptied.