GUEST POST: I Lie With Nature by Alawode Tosin

I lie with Nature deprived of that which keeps me ticking like a household clock,
Yet the nervy veins crowding my body with a block,
Like a pulsating anthill of termites quivers beneath my skin,
And burns fiery hot like a kiln.
What ails me I know not,
Yet with a strive I will push forth,
Until the peace ebbing away from my bones like a fleeing ghost,
Is caged to abide with the data of my life in its bonded host.
I stray nigh and sunder restive like a millipede's ample feet,
Yet I am enlivened with a from from an inconspicuous fleet,
I perambulate with a visage prudent,
Yet I am prone to tongues of sweat forming welts on my dessicated skin,
The fabled golden trident that holes my fear I shall grind to powder,
For then only can the groans absent my belaboured groins like a giant brick severed from a moulder.
Voices ringing in my ears are dubious,
Yet endeavour to make message obvious,
They clang with a rhythm of a thousand war bells,
Yet I thrive as they make my soul inert with spells,
For I blind mind to their prying inklings,
And flee in thought like a bird devoid of siblings.
Like a skewered animal sedated for a ritual,
I am ferried across the barns of life absent an aiding visual,
I have no say or will to stray,
And to do as wished has vanished into the wind gray,
Yet stripped of an enforcing will,
We, saddled with a resilience till,
And clothed with mails of despair,
We, girdled with belts of zeal still fare.
I will whisper until I am ridden of breath,
And against you I'll campaign until stripped of wealth,
You might say I am of no strength,

Or I am devoid of a mind stealth,
Yet I can not becloud sight with your pervasive stench of vice,
For you eat away at us like a million of rampaging mice,
With a mission to loot and plunder us,
And cart away the gold in our purse.
Lease me to evangelise your extravagance,
And I will rid your slaves of the chains laced with drowning ignorance,
And give them their chests of inherited money,
You carved for yourselves as share from their deserved combs of honey!

Forever Valentine

Like bare hands on horse skin drums
My heart beats
Faster than a hungry cheetah
Harder than bamboo sticks
My mind can tell no longer

My mind,for I have no mind
Yet still a soul and surely a heart
For it races at these words i hear
Now he's asking me, I would swear
To become his own
And let my heart be his throne
For he speaks of love and Valentine
And his speech and gaze still the time

That this day should pass no longer
That this feeling may cease no further
That eternity stops for all eternity
That he may gaze on all my beauty

For my head swirls in reply
As I recall the Valentine
And my one question is why
We cannot have Valentine everyday
 

*This poem was written by Adebayo Caleb for Valentine season.

A Short Story by Adebayo Miracle

It was a secret she couldn't tell anyone because it made her realise how much she loathed herself for letting Him do those things to her.Every day she tried to think back to what she had done to trigger His interest in her...she couldn't figure out why He had to choose her,to use her.
She turned her thoughts to the present,her mum was insisting that she accompany Chief Adejoh to one of his campaigns,the thought of spending any "alone" time with him made her feel like puking but of course she couldn't tell her mother that.Instead she said as sweetly as possible,"I have other engagements,Mum.I'm sure he can manage well without me".
"Darling"her mother turned to Chief Adejoh "can you manage without her?"
Sonia gave him a look that could melt ice,daring him to say otherwise.Obviously he understood because he said"Of course,if she has other things to do,I wouldn't want to intrude.I'll be fine,dear"
Sonia sighed in relief and excused herself from the room.
As Chief Adejoh watched her leave,he felt the familiar tug in his gut.She was a stunning beauty with legs that could kill,it always amazed him how big and mature she had grown.She was much more attractive than her mother and had an aura of mystery that endeared people to her.He wanted to feel bad about the unholy thoughts he was having about her,but truth be told,he had stopped feeling bad a long time ago.He remembered when she was little more than a kid,that was when he enjoyed her most,she was His in a way.His own little beauty,she was perfect with her well-formed features and right from time he knew she would be a stunning beauty.He hadn't been disappointed.Most times he longed for her,for the closeness they had shared when she was a kid.He knew that she did her best to avoid him and soon when he could hold back no longer he would find out why.
She felt his eyes on her and she resisted the urge to turn and spit in his face.After all these years He still had the guts to look at her lustfully!...If only she could tell her mother...but how could she tell her mother that her own daughter had been intimately involved with her so-called husband?? It was betrayal of the highest order and it didn't matter that she had not consented to it still she had let him touch her.She winced as her mind traveled back to when it had all started...
She was eleven,still too young to know what he was doing.She had barely developed,her breasts were still forming and her usually straight body was beginning to show some curves.Her mother had been married to Chief Adejoh for two years and within that time Sonia had grown to like him,he was the father she never had,always buying her gifts,telling her how pretty she was.As a naive child,she had come to trust him which is why even when he started touching her inappropriately she brushed it off as something fathers did to show love to their daughters...But there was one problem...He told her never to tell anyone,that it was going to be their little secret.She could still remember his voice whispering to her at night "It'll be our little secret,sweetheart.Not even your mummy knows how much I love you". And she had felt special,loved.
No one could blame her,she had only been a kid then,even though she had been a bit uncomfortable with it,she had no idea it was morally wrong.She recalled the special outings they went on,He had called it their special "father and daughter"time...Whenever they were alone,he treated her like a princess,got treats for her and all in all she fell under his spell.She let him touch her whenever he wanted to and little did she know he was defiling her body and taking away her innocence.It was one fateful day she had discovered by chance that his actions were highly inappropriate.She had been fifteen and had mentioned to a friend the way her stepfather showed love to her,she hadn't gone into details because for some reason it embarassed her to talk about it.Fortunately,the girl she had told had not been as naive as her,and had immediately grasped the inappropriacy of her stepfather's so-called love.The girl had gone on to explain in details how wrong his actions were,and even then Sonia had found it difficult to accept that fact.He loved her,didn't he?There was nothing wrong with what he did,there couldn't be!...she tried to convince herself and rationalize his actions but somewhere in the back of her mind she knew.She knew something wasn't right.(...to be contd)

ITS REAL- a bathos by Longe Tobi

Hi friends... this 5 line poem is my most recent attempt of the use of a poetic device called 'bathos' which is simply the transition from the sublime to the ridiculous to achieve a ludicrous and sometimes a comical effect... do tell me if I nailed it...

THE WORLD STAND STILL, ITS REAL
YOUR BEAUTY FILLS ALL WITH GLEE
AND I RESPOND, MY LOVE THIS IS IT, HEART PALPITATING
I MUST GET YOUR PICTURE ON MY BB.

All thanks to the students of creative writers niche poetry college (OAU), it was in one of the lessons that this poem was spawned... its a privilege