Skip to main content

Captive


Love is not always that gentle sunshine or
the pleasant perfume of a well nourished flower garden.
Sometimes love is a heavy weight in the heart,
then it's a cold hand at your throat.
Love is the throbbing muscles of a bowman's arms some days,
sentenced to pull at an equipment bereft of a projectile.
Everyone knows this, right?
'Okay, you are not going to fall into this girl's charms',
was what I told myself when when we met.
'You mustn't because she's a blaze,
a boisterous, persistent fire and you, you don't need all that'.
No way you could know this but
things changed the day we made that play on stage,
you the nurse and I the lecherous old doctor.
That day I bought into a fantasy. 

I will be the one to loose your braids,
massage your feet when you are sore
and support your dreams.
All your whims will I diligently indulge.
To me, you will never be silly, I will carry you like egg.
I am your cocoon.
When it comes to it, my anger will burn cities down to protect you.
Oh you like bad boys? I will be gangster for you,
a big bad man and then your good man.
I am the warrior prince consort,
you the queen. 

It is not that I dread rejection, that is something I am used to.
People say I am rather hotheaded and
somewhat too optimistic and that is
why my life is a collection of mistakes.
Look, I adore the sea, its vastness,
the knowledge that it holds so much life within its depth,
all the mysteries stored in its watery bottom,
the blue-white mirror face of it.
And for all these reasons I fear it.
There is probably a seven percent chance that you will say yes.
Good odds considering...
I should just close my eyes,
ask you to let me love you like you never dreamed.
I won't because should you be crazy enough
on that day to acquiesce, I will not survive it.
The shock will kill me. 

Art Credit: Roy Tabora, Symphony of the Sea.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Education And Leadership.

Knowledge is freedom. And there's nothing developing nations are more starved of than the freedom and power of knowing. But that's just likely, seeing as individuals and governments of poor countries do not seem to be paying adequate attention to the proper issuance of knowledge.     Fred Swanniker is among those few Africans that are really enthusiastic about education, that business most people do not take to be sufficiently rewarding. He is one of the co-founders of the African leadership Academy (ALA) which has branches in Mauritius and South Africa, and hopes to open twenty-five more campuses around Africa by 2060. The institution, launched in 2005 teaches leadership skills to high school age African students as part of a highly innovative curriculum. It's vision is to impart strong leadership abilities and entrepreneurial skills to the next generation of Africans.     ALA was named one of 2016's most innovative companies by Fast Company. Swanniker a...
2 comments
Read more

A Brief History of the Benin Empire

Did you know know that Eko (now Lagos island) in present day Nigeria was originally established as a military outpost of the Benin Empire? The Benin Empire was one of the most powerful state structures that existed in West Africa, before colonial rule was imposed on most of the region by Europeans. So a polity actually emerged in the forest region of Africa, that expanded via military conquests, to have this political hegemony over large territories. At its height, Benin controlled almost all of what is now mid western Nigeria. It dominated trade along the entire coastline from the Western Niger Delta, through Lagos even up to the very boundaries of present day Ghana. Much of Benin's territorial expansion beyond its original ethnic centre is thanks to these five kings (who ruled successively from 1440 - 1606) known as the Warrior Obas, as they personally led their armies into war: Oba Ewuare the Great who is reputed to have conquered about 201 towns and villages, known for his poli...
Post a Comment
Read more

African Dwellings and Black Art.

Agreed, African scultural pieces look sinister. To laymen like me, they bear little resemblance to the natural elements they are intended to portray. Most of us would concur that African wood carvings for instance are fitting only in the dwelling places of traditional medicine men or practitioners of African Traditional Religion. Maybe it is our loyalty to Christianity or Islam, but these art works tend to conjure one strong concept in our minds- voodoo. Should one bring home a festival mask, a headress or a figurine, other persons around may be hard put to conceal their dislike for the piece, which they fear might come alive in the dead of night and carry out unimaginable ills, the way dolls do in American horror movies.        We only have to look beyond the over-large heads, the seemingly misshapen mouths, the unnaturally big eyes to see that African sculptures possess such sweetly intoxicating beauty. They are dedications to beauty, fertility, gracio...
Post a Comment
Read more