Poem – MY COUNTRY SIDE (By Akeredolu Tope)

MY COUNTRY SIDE

{Where old misty mountains adorn the sphere competing with the sky in height and glory and boisterous antelope’s race and hide behind the shrubs from *ogún’s intrusion}
~Akeredolu Tope

My country side
Where unruly old vultures scavenge on hot excrement
Threatening even the carriers
Of the meal, the happy children
Pouring out yesterday’s fill

                        My country side
Where men sit under odo’s** shade
Filling and refilling calabashes
Bantering about wine and women
With ope*** and ̣ọ́ta**** patting
Olópón***** and her kids for a blaze of the night’s glory

                         My countryside
Where the cowherd in his tattered silk
Returns home to hurray! Of happy children
Frolicking in the moonlight night attending
elders say; when I was your age

                         Now my country side
Where one cannot tell the difference between
A horn and a hummingbird
For hunters now hunt in sight of the horn
Bring Their spoils in exchange for a seat under the blue light.

        Ogún* is a Yoruba god of war and metal; odo** is a mythical tree in southwest Nigeria; ope***is the loser in an Ayo game while ota**** is the winning opposite olópón***** is the many house (children) that Ayo literally possesses.

Author Bio:



Akeredolu Tope obtained his bachelor's degree in English language from Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba Akoko Ondo State in southwest Nigeria. He currently teaches English language at St Gregory's college ikare Akoko. He remains a committed socio literary critic. He has also research a popular faction JUST BEFORE DAWN by Kole Omotosho