We came back home
covered in delusional, decorated giggles
boastful and sententious,
seeking your approval. For
our plastic bones crumpling like a piece of bad script
the skeleton of our hope would founder slightly
toward an old shrine that had metamorphosed. Empty
trapeze of our conquests planted doubts on our sanity
but we continue to gaze upward still
not stiffened by the scent of death far away
not flustered by the broken footprints of our tired spirits
we stared deeper into the void
the wide eyes of our wooden gods not blinking
we came back to the night … we came back home
waiting for the final verse.

We felt abandoned by the fight—
the war
our dreams
the burden of listening
the deception of peace;
nothing to relish
nothing to make our black blood boil,
we felt betrayed by your honesty
your thirst for followership
your record for adventure … then
you upped the game
you bent the rule
you called us “human”
you erred, you goofed
for always we had enjoyed being ghosts.

We found the ropes and chains and shackles
they spoke a new language
the language we no longer understood. They
adorned a new look
the look we no longer recognized;
our souls would race after our masters’ dreams
our bodies bob for his lust, as
we cringed beneath the beloved whip. Scared
of the roaring thunderstorm, and
hallucinated by illusion of freedom
our hunger for yesterday grew sharper than before
we felt victory creep through our veins,
for the wars and battles we lost
we came back home.

Bola Opaleke was born in Ede, a village on the banks of River Osun, in the western part of Nigeria. He graduated from Obafemi Awolowo University (Formerly University of Ife) in western Nigeria with honours in Environmental Planning. Bola relocated to Canada in 2011. A number of his poems and essays have appeared in a few print and e-magazines like FIVE Poetry Magazine, Miracle E-zine, Poetry Pacific, Drunk Monkeys, a League of Canadian Poets feature, the University of Saskatchewan’s St. Peters College annual anthology (the Society Vol. 10, 2013), UK Poetry Library, and others. In August 2012, his first book of poetry, A Note from Hell, was published by an American publisher. In almost all of his work, the abject poverty of Africa, its eroded societal values and culture, and the political manoeuvring of the ruling class feature prominently.

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