THE FACES I KNEW by Adebanji Koiki

The faces that looked upon me
The voices that sang lullaby
The hands that tickled me
They're all gone with the wind

Silently I listened and watched
First came the news, then the holes
Silently I listened and watched
News of babies, then they grow

These faces are all new
They look upon me now, waiting
Tomorrow, they shall speak thesame of me
Then I shall be beneath the earth

With the faces I knew.

THE MORNING AFTER – Adebanji Koiki

How she walked those heels were magical

Each step commanded decorum

Mouth aghast, wives clung to their husbands in fear

A beauty without company

A damsel

She could pass for a fine painting by experts

A body only fit for goddess

The reason bachelors work to impress

Only in luck did I get a chance to converse with her

Pity I suppose enveloped her to listen

Yet she accompanied my sojourn

Have I found favor or in a trance, perhaps she was tipsy?

Bright and early my soul surges and beside me lay the damsel

I had conquered the world last night

An achievement worthy of note to friends

She slept still as I beheld her face

Alas, she was not that damsel anymore

With the makeup had the beauty gone

The freshness was no more but acne

She was painted

I had been deceived

I had slept with a figment of beauty

I had slept with makeup

A story not fit for mention.

MADNESS by Adebanji Koiki

My smile does not translate happiness
Neither my job satisfaction
My existence spiritual
But living a dictation of the society

Three quarter of my being spent in classroom
learning the creation of men
Yet, no end to this triviality
which lies in papers after each completion

I bag all these degrees only to earn a title
The burden I was born to live
I am still the same man
only with knowledge of how the world works.

Tomorrow I start another journey in papers.
When will this madness stop?

STOLEN by Adebanji Koiki

You confirmed the existence of God when you met him

He was sugar in its entirety

And you tried to savor the taste

He was perfect and you knew it

Then that moment in June

After you made the maths

Late hours at work multiplied by a female secretary

You concluded, adultery

Nagging took the fore

Sugar not so sugar anymore

The fear of wife took comfort of home

Where he went wrong he couldn't decipher

In the hands of beer find him succor

Another woman just found sugar

She nurtures him and prays to stay

Maybe so, as he finds comfort

Then you wail,

‘They have stolen from me!’

Possession just passed but do not say, Stolen.