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Atsetemi: Reclaiming a Prophecy
Sometimes I consider my father too clingy. It’s in the way he claimed us at birth. Eight days after we were born, daddy etched a part of himself on us. A part we could never erase. That day, at our naming ceremonies, our father named us after himself. We would all grow up to realise that like him, we bear ATSE too; but unlike him, it’s only a part of our names. Meet my siblings: ATSEmay. roseATSE. ATSEson (of blessed memory). omATS’ola. toritsemATSE. ATSEyemi. ATSEfemi. and ATS’uwademi, my only younger sibling. I am ATSEtemi, and I’m yet to understand why dad decided to claim us by our names. Sometimes I…
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Papa’s Field
Tonight, I’m a little girl again. On a reverie to the days my soul was free, And my feet danced carefree To the rhythm of the wind; I find myself in Papa’s field Chasing sunshine with glee, Chasing blightsomely When the sky loses its glow And heavy downpour threatens my gaiety Outside my window, tonight, The sky wears a frown, Unnerving the zeal of starlights; The heavens weep sore on my ceiling, Pouring hard like the waterfalls that cascaded Down my glands three moonlights back Tonight, I should be toasting to misery again Like every other night these downpours Unlock the ocean in my glands But my soul is…
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Shall We Pray: For Convictions Compromised For A Perceived Greater Good
Shall we pray? Lord, Many times we find our convictions clashing with intellectual smartness. What we call smartness often times is a call to compromise, a value shift for a perceived greater good. We lie. We lie about our plans to avoid nosey fangs of pretentious admirers. We lie through patched places, lonely spaces, for survival and we are often quick to point to Abraham and Sarah. We lie about our faith to avoid public lynching and find affirmations in Peter’s denial of Jesus. After all, he lived through it to become a leading apostle. The denial ultimately served a greater good. We lie, Lord. And many times, with…
