JEREMIAD_ 'WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?' BY AJAKAYE STRIDA.

I saw you draw me 

while I cooked drowning noodles in the kitchen.

We were so young and happy as three jolly friends,

we never had to call Brother Afeez to repair the generator,

you were so zealous with the call of your skills,

in fact... every part of the house was filled with your art works,

even with Bic pen, you made no mistake,

and drew so correctly 'The Lion King' with no mistakes.

So brilliant you were,

using only four years in CINAC College,

mummy was so glad she bored you amongst five girls,

a boy of course,

but you were complete as three men.

Now see,

see what our father's land has done,

'Stop smoking, what are you with a cigarette stick?'

The soil of the village calls you names you weren't given,

'Ogun, Chilling,'

maybe sometimes 'Amuludun'

because you use your Unilag fees 

for their drinks and rooms in Jafo's hotel.

I locked my room in Ile Meji,

to stay a week with Mama,

all you could do...

Was to allow your friends snake staggering smokes 

and fuck to death their girlfriends.

What? 

Why all these?

'Hello, Alhaja. Your child is with the soldiers at Ojuodo', Etu reported.

Breaking news...

'What?' Tears dripped down her ebony cheeks.

'Alhaja be coming, he almost ran mad,

hitting his head hard against the transformer'

Just see... Marisa is not in Nigeria

but I know she would scared of associating with you,

just as I am in Nigeria.

What is wrong with you?

You take hard drugs and addiction is clustering your dreams,

trading online?

Did you study 'Virtual Currencies' in Unilag?

You become temporarily mad,

so crazy that you want to rape a child

who has breathed for only eleven years,

you don't want to work,

but you are desperate to build a house

and drive a car you can't maintain.

Why did you sleep with a goat,

did you kill it or you raped it to its grave?

Why did the Landlord meet salt in the mouth of the goat?

You know what?

Mummy's health is too precious,

and she is tired of driving you out of the jail,

just stay home, get isolated

and read your sorrows in a room,

I am not sure 

you know how much these five sisters love you.

We love you than Jumoke does!

Get a good woman just like your blood siblings are.

There was a prophecy,

that you will become a king,

let it be and work towards it,

no more of Kella Smida's music,

play the radio all days

and change just as you were 

in the beginning,

just as you were in Mile 2.

What is wrong with you?

Do you remember you are a graduate?

RASHIDAT OLAMIDAYO AJAKAYE

STRIDA_Striking Ideas.

The poet laments over a man who is being led on the wrong path through the intake of hard drugs, bad friends and his internal laziness.