Femi Osofisan

 

Exile song

 

Echo of sparrow and seagull:

drone of departing beings:

         It is the same siren cry,

         the exile’s song

 

bless us, motherland,

we the orphans left behind…

 

we have waited in the dust of depleted libraries

looked at the lean look of the classrooms

where young forlorn eyes stare back like waiting stakes

 

we have read our future fate in the gaunt bands

gathering noisily over the garbage dumps

 

Hearts are breaking

& loves dry out

the wind is strong

& a new season has come

hostile to sedentary breeds

 

Come, says the road

the air is impatient:

           it is the same summoning cry,

           the exile’s song

 

Seeking consolation still, I think of my friends

who have all escaped elsewhere

& of the letters they send back monthly in exultation:

 

Alone, I

take a long walk into the spaces they left behind…

 

 

Become the journey

 

So wait

no longer

for the coming

of the ferry:

 

Forget

the promise

of the

paddle:

 

Turn, beloved.

TURN NOW!

 

become

the journey itself!

 

 

The poems by Femi Osofisan featured here are taken from Dream Seeker on a Divine Chain (Ibadan: Kraft Books, 1993).

 

 

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