THE GOOD OLD DAYS

1/7/2023

By Olayioye Paul Bamidele

good old days are good arsonists. they burn
& burn & burn & burn until we are left with
ashes as memories. in this place, i trawl my
hand in the ashes & my hand soots. i pull out
a singed portrait of my family. my father & i
are seared from the picture. my mother, a smiling
monochrome, explores her teeth to the camera.
on her lips, unlived songs dwindle. songs that
haven't seen the light. // one of the things childhood
deprived me of is that i didn't taste love as love,

but familiar with the word - the stress, bleating
between the tongue & front teeth. i mean, i am
one of the choirs, pastor howling to me, 'God loves you.'
i mean, i was in the refuge camp, Amnesty groups
breathing into our ears, words of love - clean enough
to wash the echo of the bomb, detonating our hamlet. //
history has become a relic of pain. a scar, whose wound
refreshed daily. i can't live to myself without resurrecting
my family on my lips & mind. // good old days are good
arsonists, inflating flames.

Writer's Biography

Olayioye Paul Bamidele is a writer and a student of mass Communication. His works have appeared or are forthcoming in Spillword, Lunaris, Artlounge, Ice Floe, Black Moon, Feral, and elsewhere.

10 Comments

Ogundeko Toluwanimi Alexis

3/7/2023 10:44:29 am

It has been said that nostalgia is the best and worst feeling ever. In this, heart-wrenching piece the writer uses vivid imagery and an emotive sorrowful tone to recount to us readers, the negative side of nostalgia. The writer gives a heartfelt expedition to their traumatic past memories in order to display it's impact on their present life. A very captivating piece, I'll recommend this to any one as it leaves a powerful emotional impact even after reading.

Alobu Emmanuel

4/7/2023 01:58:23 am

👌💯

“..good old days are good
arsonists, inflating flames”🥺

Adewusi Omotolani link

3/7/2023 05:43:26 pm

Hmmn,not every childhood memory is nice and fun filled can totally relate

Abdulrasheed Diana link

5/7/2023 02:10:02 am

Images immortalize moments. This piece captured how the writer is frozen in time, stuck in yesterday. Because it is his happy place. The tides of change came too fast, burning everything he used to know. Leaving nothing but the story he has told in this beautiful piece and the scars of his loss, he captured my attention and took my mind's eye on a journey from a place of happiness to the dark side of the moon, laced with tragedy.

Evidence

5/7/2023 09:30:26 am

Hmm.
The poet questions the truism of the phrase "good old days" in this poem. Growing up as a child in a love depraved immediate surrounding, the poet has no good thing to look back at in his "old days". Instead, memories bring back sorrow and grief.
The metaphoric presentation of "good old days" as "good arsonists" further tells how the poet would continue to be scathed by memories of his past.

I'm wondering why the poem is not clearly separated into lines though. I understand that it might be to achieve an effect but it can also affect the reading process.

Aisha B.

17/7/2023 12:28:44 am

In this poem, the writer paints a walk down memory lane, painting a picture of how the memories of the past can burn away at us.

“history has become a relic of pain. a scar, whose wound
refreshed daily.”

The above line perfectly captures the essence of the poem. The way nostalgia of the past inflicts even more pain and yet, it cannot be helped.

Overall, it is an excellent poem but I wish it had broken up into paragraphs to help the flow of it for reading.

Solomon T. Hamza link

21/7/2023 07:08:04 pm

The poem, " good old days" is a writer's reminisce, a walk down memory lane which isn't a pleasant one to the writer.
From the line, " I trawl my hand in the ashes & my hand soots" points how the writer holds memories of his parent in a portrait saved in his head. How the passing of time has burnt down all the pleasant memories of his past, leaving him In perpetual sorry and grief.
He also tackles the insecurity of the country which has led to the splitting of not only his family but of others and how a few unfortunate ones have ended up in refugees camp which was clearly stated in the line, " wash away the echoeof bomb detonating our hamlet"
This reminds me of a story I read online of a girl who heard her parents fled their homes to seek refuge in the bushes when gunmen attacked her village.
The poem has a moody tone. And I love how the writer tries to invokes imageries in the minds of readers In his poem as evident in first the stanza.
This is a sad, yet lovely peom about family,grief and loss.

Olayinka Yaqub link

30/7/2023 12:55:57 am

In THE GOOD OLD DAYS, Olayinye writes about the nostalgia of what was, of things past, of a time long gone. But with words like "arsonists" and phrases like " they burn
& burn & burn & burn until we are left with
ashes as memories. in this place, i trawl my
hand in the ashes & my hand soots", Olayinye reminds us that nostalgia, as well as the memories of the past, can be a bad feeling, a reminder of hurtful things better forgotten.

In summary, THE GOOD OLD DAYS, details the feelings of a boy whose hamlet was bombed, his parents and family gone,his childhood stripped of the usual love and care a childhood should have. It details the burden of memories, especially when all they bring is pain. It also details what it feels like to be a survivor, to live through the reminiscence of a past you'd rather leave behind.

My interpretation: THE GOOD OLD DAYS is such a powerful piece, to me because it delves into the raw and vulnerable mind of a survivor, into the weight that comes with memories. It's a sad one, a grieving that never seems to end. And this poem does justice in capturing that melancholic feeling the way it is, realistic and not overly depicted as depressing for exaggeration effect.

The lines "i can't live to myself without resurrecting
my family on my lips & mind. " is particularly so raw and perhaps the most honest thing about living through a traumatic experience.

My suggestion would be the poem ended a bit too quick for me. It would have been nicer to spend a little more time with the protagonist and learn their current life circumstances. After all, there is no good old days if there's no "now" (the present).

This was a good read nonetheless. Kudos to the author.

Ayomide Deborah

30/7/2023 03:51:21 pm

The poem depicts the painful experience of losing everything you once loved. It also focuses on nostalgia, which in this case is not a pleasant feeling.

The line - "History has become a relic of pain, a scar, whose wound refreshed daily", displays the painful impact of nostalgia on the writer, which he continues to live with. In addition, time and pain erased the good memories of the past, leaving him with only sorrow and torment.

I admire the poet's love for his family even after their deaths, as stated in the sentence: - "I can't live to myself without resurrecting my family on my lips and mind". The line - "I trawl my hand in the ashes & my hand soots", shows his struggles to savor the memories of his parents through the picture that was left in the ruins.

Wars and chaos take far too much from the lives of people; as the line - "wash away the echo of the bomb detonating our hamlet" describes. Even the children are left without anyone to truly love or care for them. This shows his battle with insecurities and dangers, which took away his home and family. The line - "Amnesty groups breathing into our ears, words of love", shows the frequent motivational words they hear, but with the dangers and the pain he suffers, they become empty and often questionable. He wonders whether love is real.

In this heartfelt poem, "good old days" is a synecdoche (signifying his traumatized past) and an antiphrasis (signifying his childhood wasn't as beautiful as the saying (good old days) depicts). The writer uses these tools to describe his past and the effects it has on his present. The tone of the poem is gloomy, but it contains raw images and themes, which add to the originality of the poem.

Overall, this poem provides an insight into the pain and suffering of refugees. It should serve as a reminder of the true causalities of an attack. It's not just the dead bodies lying around; it's the living souls they left behind. It also gives an insight into the negative side of remembering the past, which isn't a beautiful experience in some cases.

Chifuniro Tchawango link

18/8/2023 04:01:58 pm

"The Good Old Days" is a beautiful piece, the poet has pinpointed how the beautiful & bad childhood memories got burnt in the sands of time.

THE GOOD OLD DAYS

Leave a Reply.

Copyright @SprinNG

THE GOOD OLD DAYS

Leave a Reply.

Copyright @SprinNG​

Copyright @SprinNG