In this market place, I stand
Looking through minds
Checking how lips moves
As they sell goods
Rice, like this was here, and beans, like that was there
Cash in hand and purses robust
And the breeze of progress passed through
The market
Blessing every soul and laughing silently loud
I was that breeze that passed
Listening to the music of give and take
I was that breeze caressing the skins of women and men
That breeze that raised the skirts of ladies
And poured sand into the eyes of men
That breeze that carried plastic bags miles away
I was that breeze that heard the… but soon to die
The noise came from somewhere there,
I do not know where
The sound of that deadly boon
Plucked my ears from every corner
But I heard it, when it began
I heard it as it brought out Sango’s rage
No, it was not Sango, it was death
All death and all death
It was men, it was men
All men and all death
It was science
All pure but all death and all death
I lingered upon every man’s skin
Women cold as ice,
Lovers dead as woods
Babies roasted like corns
It was death
It was men
All death and all death
It was those who told peace to go to bed
It was men, all men and all men
It flowed from my many many eyes
Rivers of plenty plenty tears
I saw it shipwreck; life of happiness at the belly of the market
They were all dead
And what’s a king without subjects?
It came, an empty calabash
I took it and there I…. soon was dead.
This is soon to re-echo
As I see them come again
Those men, but who will I tell
Who will hear my call
Who will I tell that my Akudaaya
Is about to go somewhere else
Who will I tell
That that man there
Has Western charm hanging around his skin?
Eledua o! you who created me
You, who never leaves the harmless alone
Eledua o! won't you protect these ones?
Sango: the Yoruba thunder god, believed to emit fire from mouth
Akudaayo: the re-incarnated being of a dead person
Eledua: name given to the yoruba creator god.
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