THIS IS HOW WE WEAR OUR INDEPENDENCE

By Opeyemi Oluwayomi

After:  Betiku A. Samuel
-- ‘There are many hands here burying the sky.’

When the whites return to our cloth; used, we gleefully
cover our nakedness and gird our loins with African 

pride. At that moment, we were like Zion that dreameth, 
and we were glad to own our musty-ameliorated attire. 

Recently, as we grow in our palmar flexion creases like 
flowers in sandy soil, we clocked sixty-two in the callus 

palm of a Fulani man and he became a sad note; fingers 
shouldn’t have struck. Yesterday, a man of many cattle 

and sheep roasted the only lamb of another. A king shot 
his servant for being faithful, and in the pursuit of making 

fingers equal, a merchant sold his dignity for coins. Still, 
all we did was to blame the head for not soothing the pain 

in the body. Here, I see hands clouding the sky from 
beholding its stars and the moon, I see hands burying the 

sky— yours, theirs, and ours, I see. This is how we wear 
our independence.

Writer's Biography

Opeyemi Oluwayomi is a Nigerian writer. His works have appeared or are forthcoming in Poemify Magazine, Brittle Paper, Up-write Magazine, and elsewhere. In addition, he is an aspiring novel writer. Whenever he is not writing, he is probably scoring some musical piece (piano, voice et al.) or reading.