I am looking for someone who knows how to stay
Someone who ignores the bad breath
That walks out of my mouth when I say the words,
"Will you stay with me?"
Someone who won't get scared seeing the scars
Well lodged under my fitted white t-shirts.
I am looking for someone who looks beyond
The words 'commitments' and waits for me
To stutter the right words at the right time
About the right time.

I am not made of plastic or steel
Diamonds belong to the rocks
and songs that praise dead warriors.
But I am made of dust. The one you
trample upon- On the busy streets of New York
Or the rowdy streets of Ikeja-under-bridge.
Dust that won't stay.

My emotions bleed like the felt tip pen
In one moment's rush and in another second's silence
Like the ocean tide.

Like the ocean's tide, sometimes I get high
Sometimes low. The winds that blow
Never leave me to my own predictions.

I wear a shell of manhood
One that masks the same little boy
Who lived on a mother's breast;
The same boy who bit his nails
At every opportunity. The same boy
Who never knew the difference between
right or wrong.
visit or stay.


I know what it feels like to be a forest
And I know what it feels like to be a tree.
My bark is tough and my leaves wide
I can shade from the beating pelts of spring's rain
The Sun and I have an alliance
And anyone that lives under my arms
Owns a certain glow.
I am looking for someone
Whose roots will stay firm to the ground
Curled around mine like the lomp of the
Nigerian man's hair.
I am looking for someone
who will stay.


Will you stay?