ELEMENTAL KING

Suddenly, the yellow being disappears

Not with a gradual edging away

But a sharp retreat

Into the white sheets above

Thankful mutters at Mother’s lips

The day will now have less heat

No more sweat adorns her palms and finger tips

As the sun has chosen to take its seat

                 

But Mother’s mutters may

Not last so long today

As white sheets change to grey

‘Its rain’ gleeful children say

Quick words run on Mother’s lips

Saying a plea to the universal elements

To allow her sell her goods

But the skies seem poised to pour

A strong wind heralds the pour

Itself heralded by a cool breeze

It looks like the skies have waged an elemental war

And this is felt even by the swaying trees

Thunder bolts now clap

Striking quickly, no moments’ gap

The wind now takes a nap

On thunders’ lap

Mother gathers her clothing

Her goods

And her children

Under the rust zinc sheets

Yet nature’s fury is not kept

Nor are the elements appeased

Soon the wind that acted as though she had slept

Is up to see all work has ceased

As if in joy she moves with pride

Tossing here and there, pushing aside

Watching mothers and children run inside

As this wind now doth easily glide

Fear is now on Mother’s lips

When shall I get home tonight?

Will I sell all these many goods?

Or will the day be yet waste

Finally the elemental King arrives

Not with the usual August patter

But with the heaviest of its kind it thrives

As if to prove it is liquid matter

Fast flowing, pouring relentlessly

Knocking at trees, houses, people- aimlessly

Wetting office men carelessly

Raining ceaselessly

Under the zinc sheets the rain finds Mother

And child

And goods

Hurling itself at them

Mother is now mad, yet pleading

You’ve done enough

And the stubborn rain seems to be ceasing

Yet suddenly decides to act tough

Mother moves with children again

From rust sheets to roof of cane

People are packed there; no space to gain

But Mother must get her children out of the rain

Now Mother pleads to the yellow being

Please return with your scorching pain

At least I could sell my goods

And get home tonight

Under the cane shelter

Two women push for space

One at the edge of her tether

Gives the other a slap in the face

Yet again, Mother pleads for Sunlight

As she moves children from the fight

And she sees the day is already night

This has become her plight

As if aware of Mother’s plea

To its elemental rival

The stubborn rain hits fast and hard

Then reduces to a patter so slowly

Mother’s only chance

She grabs it as soon

Pulling the children with both hands

To brave the flood with only the light of moon

And now mother and children are gone

From the rain and from the sun

And they now run

Amidst pattering, they move as one

WHY SO MUCH BUZZ? by Adebayo Caleb

She scanned the surrounding swiftly and quickly adjusted to her new surrounding. As usual, she made her traditional buzzing noise just as her eyes locked on a possible prey. Dinner at last! Immediately, she aimed directly for her unsuspecting victim. In a few seconds, she was settled down to a dinner of fresh human blood. It was only a few seconds later after she had settled down to dine that she saw five heavy fingers descending on the spot where she was. Uh-oh! The victim had just felt her presence. Old Musky Toes had to wrap up dinner halfway and fly quickly away.

The short tale above is only a vivid demonstration of what the mosquito does. Reputed to be one of Africa’s most dreaded insect, the mosquito has earned its reputation from the over thirty million years to as far as the Jurassic era. It has existed on earth and if any awards are to be given for disease-causing parasites, the mosquito will get a Nobel Prize. It has been reported by the World health Organisation (WHO) that mosquito resistance has been reported in sixty four countries, while mosquito borne diseases kill more than six hundred and fifty thousand a year. This is not inconsistent with the fact that there are over three thousand five hundred different species of mosquitoes. Of all these species, each group may operate in its own way. For instance, some species attack people in houses while other species prefer to attack people outdoors or in forests.

However, it is surprising that with how mosquitoes have affected the life of most of Africa, a lot of people don’t know a lot about them. It is worthy of note that the male mosquito has a proboscis but does not have ragged edges for biting, they are also much smaller than the female, whereas the proboscis of the female are custom-made to bite and they also do make the annoying buzzing sound that puts one on red alert. The blood meal they obtain from humans is what enables them to lay eggs. It doesn’t take much to imagine why they are more in Africa since they need warmth and humidity to thrive.

Sometimes, you may also feel like a mosquito goes out of its way to bite you. This may be because they are more attracted to women than men; even weirder is the fact that, if given a choice, mosquitoes would rather drink blood from a blonde. A moving target also almost always attracts a mosquito than a stationary one because it’s a good bet that anything moving is alive and has a lot of blood. A person in dark clothing is also a very likely aim for a mosquito. The mosquito does it by its visual sensors

Mosquitoes can also sense carbon dioxide and lactic acid up to a hundred feet away and these gases are given off by human beings during their breathing process. Certain chemical in sweat also tend to attract mosquitoes, so if you keep wondering how a mosquito gets to know you are around, it’s quite obvious now. And as a result, people who sweat more tend to get more mosquitoes running around them.

These insects also possess heat sensors so they can locate human beings once they move close enough. The combinations of these sensors almost make the mosquito seem like a military aircraft rather than an insect

It is also quite interesting that when female mosquitoes drink blood, they purify the blood in their systems and leave a small puddle of urine on their victim’s skin. That is why when you first get bitten, you may notice a wet spot surrounding the bite.

Aside from malaria, the mosquito saliva released on the skin during a bite can negatively affect blood clothing, vascular constriction and immunity. It also creates inflation, hence the inflated part of the skin after a bite.

Even if eradicating this menace from our planet may be quite difficult, we may use as many preventive measures as possible. Some of the methods by which mosquitoes can be controlled include using of mosquito repellent lotion and mosquito spray. Mosquito nets can also be used. Again, wearing long sleeves and pants may help to reduce the infection by mosquitoes. Furthermore, putting on nightgowns or light-coloured clothes at night will aid in preventing the dreaded mosquito bite. DEET is also a very efficient mosquito repellent which one may use, because it targets and confuses the mosquito’s sense of smell, making the insect’s nerve cells to send a completely different message to the brain, hence preventing it from locating a person.

Indeed so much buzz is made about this deadly insect, and frankly enough, the reasons are not far-fetched, but with sheer determination, we can prevent it from infecting us.

FOR KUDIRAT ABIOLA

In an age where lawlessness prevailed

Where the common man was the criminal

Where guns ruled and blood trailed

In this time, a woman stood regal

                                  

A fighter for  democratic rule

A stickler for the rights of humanity

Like a warrior in the battlefield

The distressed cries of a distressed age

Kept her resolve

Persistent, courageous

Trudging the high path

Of the women folk

When the armory and guns spoke

And no one dared speak in return

When freedom was known to none

And bullets were courage’s cloak

There she stood

Calling for democracy

Refusing victimisation

Providing refuge

Staying strong

Yet she stood

A leader

A veteran

Of the women folk

Yet the khakis could not still

Abandon this heinous ill  will

And allow a free community

With rights for all humanity

So on she fought

Not like the Khakis

Not with bullets

Nor armory

Not with torture

Not with killings

But with her voice

A voice

A voice that seemed to loud for them

Of the women folk

A voice that was silenced

By the bullet

A woman’s voice

Yet lives on still

SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE CAMPUS by Adebayo Caleb

‘Let’s sex chat’ those were the words the fifteen year old law undergraduate typed into the blackberry bold 5 device she held in her hand on that fateful night.

‘Okay. Send me your nude pics’ the guy on the other end of the line, probably a thousand miles away, replied.

‘Okay’, she typed in and that spelled Rita’s doom.

This is only one of the instances of the many problems caused by social networks on our campuses today. In an age driven ultimately by technology and social media, the youth and teenage population are not left out in the frenzy. In fact, it seems they are at the crux of it all.

Youth are affected the most by social networks, whether positively or negatively, and yet the older population seems to have discovered this only a moment too late.

The campus is another world of its own; a world where the student is left on his or her own with practically no restraint whatsoever, hence he or she is free to engage in whatsoever he or she chooses since one is expected to act maturely once on campus. This freedom has overtime resulted in almost 30 percent of campus girls dropping out of school due to unwanted pregnancies, drug use, rape or some sexually transmitted disease and an almost equal percentage of boys being rusticated for cultism, armed robbery and the likes and some even losing their lives to these vices.

The easy access to internet facilities nowadays from mobile phones to iphones, to e-readers and modem devices to wireless devices have made the World Wide Web one very accessible world of its own.  The unending debate about whether the internet is a blessing or a curse has been on for a long time now, with different people giving different opinion. Certainly, the internet is a blessing of this technology age that has come to stay, however the use of it has definitely been abused.

The social media was originally intended to enable proper interaction between the global community, making the world a smaller place than it originally is. However, the social media has been used to perpetrate a lot of crime from advanced fee fraud to hacking of various sites. Also, there has been the promotion of sex crimes as well as sexual perversions on the net. The rise of sex chatting and sex chat rooms as well as pornography and erotic sites have prevailed over the net, where young campus students are drawn to various sexual perversions, spending a major chunk of their time on the internet. The recent trend of campus students uploading nude videos and nude pictures on youtube, facebook and twitter for no reason at all. Others are drawn into the snare of transferring their nude pictures unsuspectingly to boys who proceed to expose them on the social media.

The morality rate of the world is falling at a very fast pace, if there is any morality left at all. As a result, the youth population is drawn easily into the morality problem since the average youth seeks excitement and anything dangerous seems exciting to the youth or the campus student.

Is there a solution to this problem the social media has created for the society, where young adults are growing up to be perverted and crime-stricken adults? The solution lies in the hands of the youth who are still with some morals in them. The solution lies with the social media itself, since the youths are so stuck on it, it might as well be a means to save them. The news media should also be on the constant watch, a watchdog always cautioning the youths of our society. I understand that the current human rights cry and the mantra ‘we have the right to our choices’ has changed a lot, but we can still keep our heads from swirling even in the widening gyre, while things are falling apart, at least we could still honour our African heritage.     

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

MY UNTOLD SECRET by Opurum Timothy

It was the most surprising thing in my world for father to have done this to me, his only daughter.

The morning looks so deserted, arms folded, lips sealed, words not forth coming; calamity has stricken. The devil, as has always been accused, has perpetrated his agenda in the family. This time he struck without an option of remedy. Birds have lost their wings; trees lost their branches, house now in fire, destinies burnt to ashes; father forgetting his fatherhood and mother losing her motherhood. The family has collapsed, father has torn it apart. “When shall I see my beautiful home?” goes an old primary school poem.

Mother has gone for her usual annual 3 months business trip to Dubai leaving me, dad and my two siblings – elder and younger brothers – at home. Her trip to Dubai every year falls within the ‘Mber months,’ usually within September and November ever since she began her business in clothing materials 5 years ago.  Her business in conjunction with dad’s job accorded us the privilege of being regarded as people from a well-to-do family. Dad is a director in the state ministry of works, in his early 50s but looks like a young chap in his early 40s. This, I believe, is due to his stature coupled with his habitual love for regular exercises which he has prevailed in inculcating into us. He took us to the gym centre every Saturday morning where we exercised, using the available facility in the gym centre which takes nothing less than an hour thirty minutes on each occasion. He made sure that every routine took precedence over any other activity for that very morning. We enjoyed every bit of it, but sometimes it was very tiring. We have the opportunity of making use of any facility available because dad has duly paid for us all, including mum. We were recently bought a complete set of new kits for that purpose. This, among other adventures made my family a place to be indeed. Dad was never a boring type neither was mum. They initiated mindboggling games for the whole family. Rooms were made for us to come up with invigorating ideas on how the next weekend should look like. Each of us came up with awesome ideas after which an election is conducted to select the best idea. Mother’s business trip never regulated the weekend fun. During her absence, father invites Aunty Mary over to our home to stay with us pending mother’s arrival from Dubai. Aunty Mary does the whole lots of the house chores with little or no assistance from us.

This time, unlike other times, dad, after mum has travelled, refused to invite his sister Aunty Mary to our house with the excuse that Aunty Mary is very busy these days and besides she is preparing for her wedding ceremony coming up in December. Despite thorough persuasion, nothing came positive; he remained adamant and never yielded to our plea. 

At age 15, and my brother 17, my anatomical structure has already advanced and this is as result of my buoyant body structure which I genetically inherited from my parents.

Recently, dad decided to surprise us one evening on his return from work that day. He bought us lots of new sets of clothes. He has never bought such a great number of clothes for us. What also surprised me even the more was the type of clothes he bought for me. He violated his rule by buying for me what he vehemently warned me against not to wear when mum bought me similar stuff. Funny enough, he bought the ones more dangerous than that bought by mum. It was indeed a great surprise. He went further, to my chagrin, insisting I must put them on every night particularly when he is around. He never stopped there; he insisted I wore them every night. However, he warned me strongly never to wear them outside the home.

Though I was amazed at his decision, I love every bit of them. They look so good on me despite the fact that I felt so uneasy in them. They made me look so seductive. One thing I know for sure is that mum, if was at home, will never allow me wear them because they reveal partially my body but dad convinced me to wear them that that is what is in vogue and that he sees his friends’ daughters putting similar things on.  

To my further chagrin, dad started talking to me about sex, he called it sex education. He told me stories of sexual content and admonished me to desist from sexual acts as it could ruin my entire future. He also insisted I never allowed or kept any friend who delights in sexual activities. He told me to bring home all my friends, male and female alike. This further strengthened my confidence in him. I loved him the more. It was so fun being with him each time he called me in to his room for another round of sex education. In all of these times, he, in his unusual manner, invites me into his room for sex education. Sometimes, he went extreme in educating me about sex that I wondered if, at my age, I ought to be told that. All the same, I believed every bit of what he tells me, for whom else will I believe his words if not my parents.

I’ve cultivated the habit of putting my door on lock ever since I became 15 for reasons I do not know. Dad and mum have persistently warned me against doing that but I remained so recalcitrant and never adhered to their warnings. Dad finally succeeded in giving me reasons why I must not put my door on lock when going to bed that night. For those reasons, I left my door opened ajar and go to bed to catch my sleep. I have hardly slept shortly after I came into my room than I heard someone struggling with my door. On opening my eyes, I saw my dad in my room having succeeded in locking both of us in my room. He told me to go back to bed and continue with my sleeping, that he only came to inspect my room in other to ascertain the befitting colour of paint for it. By that, I shut my eyes to continue my sleep.

Opening my eyes some minutes after, I saw dad sitting on my bed, starring at me so lustfully and attempting to pull up my short skirt.

“Dad, what are you doing?” I screamed.

He shut me up and threatened to kill me and dump my body in the lagoon if I do not shut up and co-operate with him. I screamed but no help was forthcoming as my elder brother, who recently gained admission to study medicine, has travelled to school and my younger brother was fast asleep. He overpowered me amidst all struggling and succeeded in raping me. Dad has defiled me. He has raped me like an animal.

I wept and bled profusely. He promised to take me to the clinic first thing tomorrow morning. So magnitude was the pain I went through. Dad, or should I say devil, threathened to kill me and kill himself if I dared reveal this secret to anyone. My life never remained the same after that night as I swam in the ocean of pains and looming shame and disaster. I made up my mind to conceal this secret from everybody including mum.

Mother arrived few months later, discovers I’m pregnant and inquires who got me pregnant. At last, the secret is revealed, mum is aware now. Dad has fled from home and has never returned ever since. Mum has left home, abandoning us. Junior has dropped out of school and the home is dissolved, the home has been torn apart. Our future has been ruined by father’s quest to gratify the lustful desire of his heart. The bone has indeed been broken into pieces, who shall mend them?

This is my untold secret!