Once Upon A Time In Nigeria Poem by Chukwuebuka Adebayo

When all heads were quietly laid low
On up soft comfort of my pillow,
I imagined little, of the world I met
Then mother gave me to this planet,
Once upon a time in Nigeria,
When Oyo empire had all the power
When monkeys and men were brothers
And large hounds be their wives' guilders
With hot yams swallowed together in one bowl
Hundreds of old Moonlight stories were told.


A blueish cloud, blessed moon and stars
Chilly settled rains inside all sitting jars,
Silent nights, you beheld things glittering
On most way to the stream, noisily dinging
You could feel grounds full of cold shades,
Wet and soft, so broad flowers lacking fades
And their sweety perfumes filling the space air,
In the woods, tender cades-there and here
Kings'palace be made of few bricks and fond
Many honey hives hanging trees' neck around.



The birdies were fed, new songs were heard,
Every moments be as seen a hill of bread
Merries-as if swindlers wins their big-bam,
All hearts, they made to leap as young lamb
Little girls backing red toys and not babies
Boys ever-busy building their mud-parishes
Justice and truth measured equal and fair,
words drunk in single gourd, falsity so rare
I wish hand of time could be turned back
To those fairy days, considered as 'dark'.