like water
I poured myself into her until she was overflowing at the brim

like reinforced steel
I bridged my heart to hers and welded myself to her soul

like the sun
I filled myself with light to cover her darkness

like a blanket
I shielded her from the harsh world underneath the covers

like magnets
I orbited her aura until we inevitably collided

like a seed
I felt myself growing up from her

Then, like an idiot
I could tell she felt nothing.

If every sin was counted
Hell would be overcrowded

If Nigeria was a book,
It will be as big as an oxford English dictionary
Cause, our problems alone will be too many to write down
There won’t be any table of contents
Just like that old song goes, “everywhere jaga jaga”.

If Nigeria was a book,
Readers will never be leaders
Instead, they become cheerleaders when it’s election season flaunting brooms and umbrellas over their heads.

If Nigeria was a book,
The book itself will be imported
Each word will be written in red
If you get to read in between the lines you will find corruption on every single page.

If Nigeria was a book,
You wouldn’t want to read it, you would say “nothing come out”
But yet
The book defines us
It is our home
It is our pride
Our remedy is still in the book.


Fortune Maine

my heart wasn’t intact when I met you
but you took my pieces
and arranged them into a puzzle I didn’t know could complete me.
you held them close,
cherishing the small details they entailed,
and warmed them when they were bitter.
one day,
you decided my puzzle wasn’t yours anymore,
and you threw away those tiny, curvy fragments.
a few there and a few here,
I will find them.
I’ll piece them back together,
and find my heart again.
looking up at the stars,
I wonder why my heart feels this way,
the same way it did before I met you.

I love him
I tell myself
I know that
We will be together forever
I don’t believe that
We could be separated
My thoughts tell me that
He’s the love of my life
Sometimes my heart lies and says
I could live an eternity
Without him
Like my friends say
“We’re perfect for each other”
And you can’t tell me
He’s not the one.

Now read from bottom to top.