There was God
maybe one or many of them, it didn’t matter
Every map failed to locate any
while our little mirror searched tirelessly to no vail
It only pointed out the churches and mosques
and shrines and prominent temples of worship
I left in search of a new god.
Mama said He lives in our hearts
He can only be mirrored through man’s life and existence
She thinks there is just one — not two, not three, just one
but those sweet worship melodies can’t save her from death’s scary shadow
neither would the early call to prayer
I left in search of a new god.
Her hallelujah was only outdone by the fear she nursed
when the earth stretched forth her hand from sixth feet below
On her bed, she would sing beautifully
with rheum of tears streaming down her wrinkled skin
and her moist eyes wouldn’t stop begging for a miracle
The centre failed to uphold its claim
‘{g}od cures,’ or perhaps, he failed.
Mama wept uncontrollably
She had prayed for the fate of the miraculous four days old ghost
for Akanji — her first son
for the Pastor had preached resurrection during sermons
Yet, Aduke, Arike, Omolabake and Akanni remain prisoners to death’s claws
Perhaps, like Job, she was facing a test of faith
I left in search of a new god.
She witnessed four daylights and dusks without vegetables or water
with her eyes fixed in the sky
Unlike Lazarus, her hopes dashed to the tomb
Their ghosts were not re-gifted with beautiful skin as of newborns
neither were they filled with blood
nor fattened flesh like Orobo boti boti, as everyone called young Aduke.
Mama Akanji had accepted a white god in a black land, many had said.
She read the handwriting of horror
as it hunted her like the biblical texts on the wall
Wept profusely and clutched her small sacred book to her chest
in hope and faith, and defence
There I left her
In the blindness of the gross darkness that overshadows the sun at dusk
I left searching for a new god — a god in life, and not in death.
Wandering Hope
AUTHOR’S NOTE — WANDERING HOPE
The poetic persona questions the existence of deities, and the spirituality of faith and hope when calamity befell his family.
And though he expresses his doubt in his Mum’s faith, he hopes that in his search for a supreme deity, he wouldn’t die himself.
Note: This poem does not suggest that there is no God, neither does it undermine the existence of a supreme being (s). This is a mere creative work of art, thoughts and imagination. And here, the poetic persona is in distress.
