ABIKU

       ABIKU

The compound is cloudy with rain
Not rains from the clouds but rain from the numerous eyes
The air is pregnant
Not with a child but with imminent
Sorrow!.......uh....why?
'Cos Abiku has returned home again

Mother is wailing loud,
Threatening death and resurrection
Invisible flames are burning her
For all her earthly labour is destroyed again
The pain is unbearable and she must be
Allowed to die!for why else should she live

Father sits on a heap,sighing repeatedly like
A fat pig! Eyes coal-red and mouth agape
Saying unvoiced words
He's restless,looking this way and that
In search for this girl bit in vain
'Cos Abiku is beyond his reach

After making four to and fro journies
Abiku has been impolred to stay with-
Black cows,White ducks, wrapped
In a red cloth-wrapped in a scarofice
Times without number so that she could live
But,Her determination to cause sorrow is great

For seven years Abiku decieves all
Asking for seven cowries
Eating and drinking things Father couldn't afford
Falling I'll every day
Lot of appeasement were made


But upon all this
Abiku had taken her eternal leave again!
Never to come back
In the back yard,dug a hole
Where her body is laid to earth

I stood there observing
And I could hear Abiku's voice saying-
Nothing can stop me from leaving or coming to earth when I want to
Don't ask me how I heard her,she's dead right
But after all she's ABIKU


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