THE DEADLINE : A POEM BY: Adeola Ikuomola

THE DEADLINE
This is the deadline
Sadly, the line is dead
With the dead fully lined up
For the fortunate fellows' funerals
This is the redline
Truly, the line is red
And the line is painted red
Forging mathematical numerals
This is the story line
Oddly, the line is a story
And the story is told on line
To cement the base-breaking news
Here is the dead end
Lyrically, death is the end
And the story is told at death
To smoothen up the scraggy grave
THE FLOWERBEDS GRANTS US REST
It is calm in the forest
And the leaves are green
The flowerbeds grant us rest
Even as the waves sustain a grin
The househood wept
As the old monkeys cried
And from tree to tree they lept
In the sunbathing their tears dried
Their ruinous cup
Wth the wine blown up
Struck as vanity fails to stop
Dental decimal crouches on top.
The dominant deck
Paddles downward praying
Like birds with worms to peck
The command fighter jets preying
Firm, fast and furious
Like the quick laser jets
We are cornered and curious
To honour the life and death bets
THE ANCIENT TOWN
The ancient town
Is like a bleached clown
Robed in a segregated gown
Fleeing from the modern dawn
The ancient builder
Is a dislocated shoulder
He makes the roofs shudder
Distant skies he seeks to solder
The ancient cook
Stares at the recipe book
Like a justice-haunted crook
Stirring up jurisprudential brook
The ancient pot
Where meals make sport
Keeps souls on the same spot
Like ships travailing at the sea port
The ancient plain
Like generational pain
Where modernity is slain
Pilots the confused social plane
The ancient palm
Lifting hands void of harm
Shrouded in blazes of charm
Shows me the way of the Psalm
The Ancient of Days
Emerges in heavenly ways
In the flames of purifying rays
For global redemption Christ pays
THE BABY MOON LIES IN THE SKY
The baby moon lies in the sky
Like a tiny hairless mouse
The stars frame her house
From which dark shadows shy
The baby moon snores deeper
When earthmen fall asleep
Into the valley her rays slip
To remain her brother's keeper
To the valleys she remains dear
Like golden heads to a cap
Where wisdom runs his tap
With the burden of thirst to bear
Into my soulcase peace she lures
To colonise my maternal life
And hawk poetic embers live
Like the fragrance of the fair lores
Now the moonlight is like an eagle
Soaring deepest in the night
To empower the light Knight
Like a wild lion roaring in the jungle
THE SECOND VISIT TO THE SEA SHORE
The moon barracked in the barren sky
Was a quick edifice for pulpils to dwell
He beamed his royal lights earthwards
Like sea waves erecting woes onshore
His beams in his earth-bound ploughs
His sparkling train to earth he wheeled
Bridal lamp and light to earth he ceded
As heart-broken farmers sow the seed
Nightmares departed from the fortress
Under the supervision of a bloody peak
Selling the dirtiest of all foreign bodies
Behind the counters of the titled house
The moon mandated the quickest stars
Ringed for the most distant of the skies
To adopt and breastfeed the baby earth
As the deep scripted the roaring echoes
My second visit to the diplomatic shore
For a core diploma course in diplomacy
Taught pure geographics diplomatically
Like thunder beating up his kettledrums
OUR THROATS VOTED FOR SORES
From the morning diaries
We saw mourning dairies
As woefully weak cowries
Wooing the failed dowries
We embraced the late leaf
Like the tree granted leave
We heard embattled cocks
Kissing the hydrated corks
Our throats voted for sores
Like terror-annexed shores
Banana skins came to peel
The health in economic pill
The weird executive wheels
Pointed out conflicting wills
Within the broader forehead
The quick hostages are held
IT RAINED, RAINED AND RAINED
The sky's tear-smeared face
Echoed the unpredictive future
Like floods running a blody race
With a heart bleeding for suture
It rained, rained and rained
Breaching and hurting homes
Like the waves wildly trained
To dismantle maritime domes
The rains ruined the dreams
And scared the massive floors
Hosting transgender streams
Like the wineries' dramatic flaws
The rains as cranes on the trains
Prepaid the earth and sold the air
Like a soul's excruciating strains
Marking health as a bride so dear
SHOW ME YOUR CATTLE.
Show me your cattle
I will give you a kettle
And show me your kite
I will give you my cat
Take me to your town
I will give you a crown
And count your fingers
I will buy you a living tiger
Joy, tell me your age
I will write it on a page
Give me a rubber cork
I will crow like a cock
God give me a son
I will dance in the sun
God give me wheat
It tastes like sweet