THE APPEARANCE OF A COMIC BOOK CHARACTER
After waking up in the morning to the hunger stricken cry of our local fowl,
I get up hastily from my makeshift mattress, permanently entwined with my mother’s sweat
and thick brown bamboo
I do not reach for my toothbrush
Because she has been kidnapped by poverty and raped by frustration
Instead I pick up my chewing stick, flavored with mint and desperation.
I then went to the bathtub to have my royal bath; while having my bath, my royal servants are not allowed to greet the floor and if the Thomas’s among them eventually did;
I can never accept them into my court ever again, especially my sponge
Once he touches the floor, he is forever banished from my court.
After taking my bath, I get dressed quickly, my appearance, always looking like a comic book character
All year round my clothes never change, except for my shoes which only changes on Christmas day.
But before setting off on another day’s journey. I reminisced on how the day will be
How dozens of hawkers will outrun the vehicles to sell their wares in the intense afternoon sun that can make Michael Jackson become the twin brother of firewood
How officers of the law will willingly allow devils to enter into the promise land but ask the believers for their particulars and believers identity number
How the red dusty road which looks like half eaten bean cake makes the passengers complain with every passing minute
How the lack of power and electricity will make people powerful with words and energetic in cursing
How I have to relive the same moments all through my life with no hope for change.
Just like the appearance of a comic book character.
I kinda took a few days off to do some stuff, but now I'm back for good, and i didn't come alone.
DIVING DEEP
Remember when i said i didn't come alone, well i decided to write a different kind of poem. And glady it worked out.
It'll take me to much time to explain the poem line by line and wouldn't be that understandable if i did it stanza by stanza, so the best thing for me to do is explain it all at once.
NOW WE'RE DIVING DEEP
At the starting of the poem, the poet persona is narrating his everyday experience, when he has to wake up on a bamboo bed made by his mother while she was sweating profusely, which was supposed to be temporary but ended up being the latter.
When he said he does not reach for his brush because she had been kidnapped by poverty and raped by frustration. This simply means he does not have tooth brush cause of the nature of the economy and country and that he is frustrated by it.
In this part his royal bath is actually a ill stricken bathroom with Cobwebs and all other dirty stuff. His Royal Court is made up of his sponge, soap and other essential bathing tools. Knowing the poet persona's kind of bathroom, if anything falls on the ground don't even think of picking it up again.
After he has taken his royal bath he thinks of how his day will be, knowing fully well that nothing in his life or his country would soon change. Just like the appearance of a comic book character.
my quill bleeds