While it may be possible to demystify this poem along any thematic line...it is my intention to address the confusion that ransacks social cognition at the point of making individual choice during elections.... In most cases, we are not presented with enough political choices to make as there are two parties with unreliable candidates. Take Jonathan and Buhari as example..... I was not convince by the latter's candidacy but I was feed up of the present adminstration then..... So how must I make a choice in such a puzzling state.
Who Will be the Next King
Erin nla wo ninu igbo
Igbo palolo
Eja nla lo ninu ibu
Arogidigba lo lawujo awon eye
Borokini lo lawujo awon omo eniyan
The great king is gone
And the ancestral throne is now vacant
The tussle for power has began
Among men that can bribe the gods
Tradition makes it a law
That only men with royal blood
Flowing in their mortal veins
Must ascend the throne
Yet the dead king left behind
Two sons of doom
One is obsessed with greed
His eyes hankers on other people's things
His yard is filled with women
He snatches from their husbands
His court is filled with slaves
Who are also his clans men
He is prospered by the labours of his people
If you grovel in hunger
He doesn't care if you die
If you boast of a full ban
You are only inviting trouble
The other son is addicted to wickedness
His joy heightens when others are in pain
Is favourite game
Is to laugh at people on in the pangs of death
He just loves to make people bleed
He could smothers the head of an infant
Against the mill stone
He could bury an entire family
In the lifeless darkness of the earth
Just for the fun of it
Now you ask me to make a choice
Of who will become the king between them
How do you expect me to make a choice
On a matter that puzzles the gods
And confuses the oracle?
It is easier for me
To dance on the head of a swinging sword
Than make a choice between hell and the devil himself
But one thing I know for sure is this
In four moons time
A thief or a murderer
Will be crowned the king
Of a land at the brink of collapse
© Olatuja Oloyede
Who Will be the Next King
Erin nla wo ninu igbo
Igbo palolo
Eja nla lo ninu ibu
Arogidigba lo lawujo awon eye
Borokini lo lawujo awon omo eniyan
The great king is gone
And the ancestral throne is now vacant
The tussle for power has began
Among men that can bribe the gods
Tradition makes it a law
That only men with royal blood
Flowing in their mortal veins
Must ascend the throne
Yet the dead king left behind
Two sons of doom
One is obsessed with greed
His eyes hankers on other people's things
His yard is filled with women
He snatches from their husbands
His court is filled with slaves
Who are also his clans men
He is prospered by the labours of his people
If you grovel in hunger
He doesn't care if you die
If you boast of a full ban
You are only inviting trouble
The other son is addicted to wickedness
His joy heightens when others are in pain
Is favourite game
Is to laugh at people on in the pangs of death
He just loves to make people bleed
He could smothers the head of an infant
Against the mill stone
He could bury an entire family
In the lifeless darkness of the earth
Just for the fun of it
Now you ask me to make a choice
Of who will become the king between them
How do you expect me to make a choice
On a matter that puzzles the gods
And confuses the oracle?
It is easier for me
To dance on the head of a swinging sword
Than make a choice between hell and the devil himself
But one thing I know for sure is this
In four moons time
A thief or a murderer
Will be crowned the king
Of a land at the brink of collapse
© Olatuja Oloyede
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