In total,
I think I know nothing
                           Of you.
In part,
I think I know all
                  Of you.
Together,
I think is where I’ll start
                          With you.

A swift hit onto a plain wall
is far better
than an aching heart
that felt what the eyes have seen

My hands have a purpose
but it's far more fragile
than the love it holds

I'll break both
for I have grown numb,
Yet my eyes are waterfalls
that I need to put a dam
for you to not see the tears

You say your moving on
I'm happy for you, I guess
But I'm unfulfilled and lacking closure
And that's when I'm at my best

Words come difficult to me
Especially when I speak
But I can't leave the past behind
and move on to what I seek

So many questions
So little answers
And we're running out of time

We lied to much
Didn't cry enough
While we act like we're all fine

I do not knock at death's door,
I dance with him, closely interlaced
We glide across the river of souls
Throughout the night until it bleeds into day.
I do not spin free of his grasp
Nor do I fall from his hands to be laid in the ground.

I cannot fall from his hands for I am chained to life.
I am tasked to live on this earth to fulfill a purpose I am unaware of
One day I will find the reason I live, but not tonight
I dance with death, slowly gliding across the river of souls
I listen to his siren’s sweet songs, the promise of the ending of pain

Yet I hear the cries of the living
They beg me to stay to fulfill my purpose
They say I matter, and they say it will get better
They have faith that it will and offer me support

Their cries are powerful, they cry overpowering the sirens sweet melody
I am chained to living, but know the realness of death
I’ve grown close to death but am still called upon by the living
The chains of living had pulled me from my dance

And after many years of pain and guilt and sorrow I know my purpose
Here I warn others of the siren’s songs.
I warn of the empty promises of death and the deception of our dance.
For I have danced with death but am bound to life

Africa's venerated literary
icon with words of eloquence
esoteric to the blind.
Distinguished in letters
for ages infinite.
Unparalleled in intellect,
and a gadfly of constructive
dissenting views.
Soyinka,
You are indeed a priceless
asset to the black race.
The wise grey-haired doyen
of literary geniuses,
whose ingenuity is in a century
once seen,
and in a Millennium, ten times.