Owoeye Joshua 3 months ago

@Slymjosh Creat... 2 min read Write a comment #poem-poetry

Old Pa Ajani

That night when that evil vulture; Whizzed past us in one single flight; We should have known;

That night when that evil vulture,
Whizzed past us in one single flight,
We should have known,
We should have been suspicious,
Not even when it peaked on old pa’s roof,
And it perked and hummed that evil tune.

But we were deaf,
Or maybe we were too young,
To notice that fear,
But I swore with my life I saw it in his face,
Somehow I saw it, hidden,
Between his weary eyes and brown kola nuts teeth,
Somehow I knew I saw it,
Maybe because they didn’t glisten when he flashed it.

That morning as we trudge past his garden,
Old pa was tendering his (black roses),
We screamed his name once, twice, thrice,
But he seemed not to notice,
We wouldn’t relent, so we continued,
At the height of our thick voices,
Till his name echoed at the mountain valley,
Then he turned and looked at us in awe,
Anger brewing in him,
Frustration sweating around his skin,
We couldn’t wait to see what next we ran ahead.
But when we came back midday, he seemed jovial,
Happier and lighter, his usual self – a big clown,
He had us chase his old bicycle through the whole town,
And gave us a treat of sweet cherries from his garden farm.

Happily, we went home and rejoined him in the evening,
For his scintillating night tales,
The tortoise story was to be narrated today,
But he wasn’t strong that night; he was frail,
When he talked, he coughed and shook,
Only if we knew they were signs,
Signs so clear, but we were blind,
While he was dying, we were laughing,
We rolled on the floor with our bellies aching,
From the night through the next morning,
He died, and we cried lonesome mourning.
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