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how to love your country

1/9/2022

25 Comments

 
By Omidire Joshua
Picture
make your way to
Lekki Tollgate. placards in hand, songs on tongue. 

when you see the hoodlums in uniform, don’t run.
ask them questions about the demise of your father
in the grave of poverty.

better still, send a letter bomb to their lords
ask them how you, a butcher’s son, feed on bones.
a.    Lekki is the nexus between blood and water. the estuary of breath and silence.
the inexorable wheel of history wheeling on the oil of deep youthful hunger for depth and meaning
for a change in a country where stasis and regression take turns to lay siege to lights yet not lit and the lamps struggling for breath on the river of dusk

b.    an owl perched on the stubborn ear of the bridge, clicked its eyes at eggs fated to be pelted with pellets. it’d wait till our blood becomes news; something to carry home to vulture. 

c.    even when they strip you naked and stack you in a black maria, smile.

d.    if they cock their guns, don’t budge. breathe and be happy. bullet too is an expression of love. wouldn’t you rather die a lover?

e.    even a fall is a love language. speak it. fall a thousand times. until you fall no more.

f.    your root should say unto their branch, let there be fruit.

g.    a mother spiced her children. served them in daring dishes to her faithless Gods
who knew nothing but hopeless sacrifices whose smoke stinks like a dead fly trapped
in a vial of oil.

h.    mother’s Gods forked hearts, livers, noses, cheeks, eyes
and raised it all to deity of tongue where taste bud connived

with saliva, and dagger teeth
esophagus drew it all

down the hell
of belly’s abyss 

i.    Belly is the secret place of loot where palliathieves wrung our arms
where ptyalin mates with  the starch in our thoughts
but we are indigestible

true love is a fishbone 
in the throat of a traitor.
Picture
Writer's Biography

Omidire, Joshua Idowu
is a vibrant poet, editor, blogger, and social media strategist. He studied English and Literary Studies at the University of Lagos. He later had his Master’s in Literature-in-English in the same Institution. 

His poems have appeared in Footmarks, Our Legacy of Madness, The Sky is our Earth: An- thology of 50 young Nigerian Poets. He was the winner of Professor Eruvbetine’s Poetry Prize. He also won Professor Hope Eghagha’s Drama Prize in 2012. He has been published in Pulse, Ynaija, Praxis, Literary Horizon: An International Peer-Reviewed English Journal, etc. He reports for The Journal Nigeria.
​

He loves reading hard books, listening to music, and scooping inspiration from the stream of mundane activities. He enjoys playing with street photography, graphic designing, and photo editing. 

25 Comments
Taiwo
2/9/2022 08:18:26 pm

This is Beautiful. Thanks for putting words to generations of silenced ones.

Reply
Esther
3/9/2022 07:49:06 am

This poem is so beautiful, it’s history skillfully twisted like a thick immortal braid in our hearts.

Reply
ALIYU, MOHAMMED ABDULHAMEED
3/9/2022 12:29:19 pm

Wow, nice piece of poem....indeed, we are indigestible!

Reply
Anita m.
3/9/2022 12:32:48 pm

Truth.....well done to the writer

Reply
Aladetoyinbo Amazing-Covenant
3/9/2022 12:55:31 pm

Beautiful poem with the deepest meanings...

Reply
Sam Uwadia
3/9/2022 01:20:05 pm

This is so lovely.It leaves a memory of that horrible incident that occurred at lekki toll gate.

Reply
Joy
4/9/2022 02:31:07 pm

Nice piece

Reply
Oluwafunke
4/9/2022 04:14:49 pm

This is so fantabulous... More wisdom, knowledge and understanding by his grace... keep it up.

Reply
Precious
4/9/2022 06:38:01 pm

Very nice poem, keep it up .

Reply
Ayobami
4/9/2022 06:47:59 pm

This is beautifully written. Well done Joshua.

Reply
Ayodeji Ojo Emmanuel
4/9/2022 10:53:35 pm

Such a detailed narration! Such a beautiful piece!

Reply
James
5/9/2022 10:39:36 pm

How to love your country by Omidire Joshua really instigate a true picture of what has been going on in our country. Solidarity on this script is inevitable.

The obscurity of humanity has brought our fatherland to a state of brutality.

The writ is quite emotional. It really shows what has been happening in our country

Good write up. Keep it up

Here, I would suggest this poetry to be written in bold ink and placed in strategic locations in Department of Art and Culture for literature students to read

Thank you.

Reply
Imaobong
6/9/2022 09:00:33 am

Great poem from a great poet. Keep soaring my dear. How you bring your thoughts to words is super. I really applaud your poetic talent. The sky is your stepping stone.

Reply
Titi
6/9/2022 10:54:53 am

I enjoyed reading this. A great piece.

Reply
Yakub Fathia Temitope link
6/9/2022 11:35:08 am

This piece made me feel so close to the event that took place at lekki.

Awesomeness in every bit of line.

Reply
Kehinde
6/9/2022 01:48:58 pm

This poem beamed a floodlight on the recalcitrant leaders and the victimised people of Nigeria.

Your writings will take you to high places beyond your imagination. Amen.

Reply
Blessing
6/9/2022 03:35:31 pm

It's the irony in every words for, replacing tears, regrets, and shame with happiness, pride...
Nigeria is one hell of a country. Nice piece you have!

Reply
Chris Anyokwu
8/9/2022 11:51:05 pm

Incredibly visceral, nuanced with history of contested claims to patriotism and framed within geographies of sundry denials and dispossession. The poet-persona as collective agency and voice inscribes the rightness and justness of mass self-immolation amid institutional carceral, panoptic crackdowns. The trope of "fishbone" is especially inspired in relation to the table manner of repressive regimes of power. The deliberate violation of conventions of syntax and morphology reminiscent of e.e cummings and other exponents of orthographic deviance is refreshingly bold and remarkable. Specifically,numbering the stanzas with lowercase letters as well as using lowercase letters almost through out the entire poem betokens a mood and method of iconoclasm, and,even, rebellion as a semiotic index of rage. In this regard, therefore, style echoes sense, and method embosses meaning. The poem has monumentalized the Lekki Massacre of October 20,2020 in our cultural memory and has transmuted history into popular folklore.

Reply
Onyemowo Jacinta
9/9/2022 08:46:45 am

This is truly incredible Joshua

Reply
Ayeni Anjolaoluwa
10/9/2022 02:27:57 am

This is awesome

Reply
Tinuade
10/9/2022 03:15:51 pm

This is absolutely fantastic. Well-done. I enjoyed the play on words, sarcastic romance of words. Thank you for this.

Reply
Ojo Victoria
12/9/2022 08:20:08 am

One day, I hope my country gets healed.

This is another poem tighten with emotions.

Reply
Chimere
13/9/2022 09:55:18 am

This is an excellent depiction of the lekki tollgate massacre.

Reply
Ginika Ifeabunike
15/9/2022 03:45:28 pm

This poem is long overdue. Thank you for finally writing it.

There can never be too much write-ups about the Lekki Toll gate massacre.

The poem is filled with imagery that helps the reader create a mental picture of what is going on in the poem.

Thank you once again for writing it and I love your play on the word - 'palliative'.

Reply
Folasade Badmos
17/9/2022 03:19:30 am

If anything, I loved the use of Sarcasm in this piece. Welldone Joshua.

Reply



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