A Future Stolen - Poem by Yomi Oguntoyinbo

Bags of cowries travel abroad
Through the back doors
Inheritances our forefathers left us
Mysteriously disappear
To enrich sons of other land
This, the gimmickry of beloved brothers

Thingamajig, thingamabob, thingy…
It drops in our soul.
As the night manoeuvres the day
They, the destiny of the people
Changing the course of things to come
The more we see the less we become.

Now, we are left with nothing
But a future stolen
Generations unborn, like the camel
This burden to bear so cruel 

Yomi Oguntoyinbo

The Half Woman - Poem by Yomi Oguntoyinbo

She was completely innocent at first
Deceit crept in and forcefully took away her virginity
Lies threw her on the streets - corrupting her innocence.
With sweet songs, men from yonder and thither came and went;
And her life was never the same again
Homeless and shameless she became;
A perpetual borrower, more so, she was reduced to;
A pauper - borrowing from street to street.

As men exchange baton in the race of her life, she aborted...
Yes! She aborted, and aborted again and again;
Until she aborted her future - her vision.
This cruel wind blew her here and there
Banishing her into the world of oblivion
Until one day, she became sterile - the Half Woman.

If you see her walking corpse across the streets,
Empathise with her … OR rather with yourself,
For herein lies the epitome of mother Africa. 

Yomi Oguntoyinbo

Tears

Tears, the Silent voices of the heart

Sacred and full of power

Speaking for souls broken apart

Undisputed remedy for emotions gone sour

The Language of overwhelming emotions

A voice silent yet strident

Of unspeakable love happiness and elation

Of feelings drowned in torrent

Like summer showers to the soul

Washing away the Blinding dusts of grief

Killing the embers of sorrow's coal

And awakening the greens of bay leaf

Tears are the languages of our hearts

The medicines for our souls

                                           - Juwon's Voice