By Rotimi Babatunde
______
Oedipus Rex: The Comedy
Daughter…
Listen:
Once upon a time
a cat
swirled like an iron vortex
whirled
as it chased around a narrowing spire
Curiosity’s tail
But Curiosity, the cat-killer, also swirling
was stretching for the cat’s tail
was looping around the vortex
tightening like a noose.
A requiem for the strangled cat,
(For dawn hangs nude the buried wombs,
the broods of gall and – ah! – screaming wounds).
Was I Medusa?
Was I Medusa reaching for a mirror?
Daughter, sister…
Listen:
But once upon a night
I was the billy goat humping my mum’s rump, our mum’s.
Until dawn dropped down – a conjurer from the east –
Scooped up the night with his hat of rays.
From it the goat jumped out a man – I.
So I was Orion.
I was Orion in night’s woods hunting for dawn.
The goat was the father of the man.
The man will be father of the god.
(For nine lives the cat has,
Nine stairs soaring to the stars.)
Have, child, this sacrament – my outplucked eyes.
Use them as spectacles in my memory.
_________
For the Apo Six, Murdered by the Nigerian Police
The Apo Six’s case is not unique –
Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on Extra-judicial Killings
The United Nations warns that Nigerians are liable to be murdered young.
At the crowded market (remember, the police is your friend)
With his bloodshot eyes, on your way to school, the gin heavy in his breath
Your close friend, in a bus or by your window, too close for comfort
At the roadblock, his bullet in your skull, the police is your friend
The United Nations warns that Nigerians are liable to be butchered young.
The United Nations warns that Nigerians are liable to be hounded dead.
Under the moon the graves are fresh (support your local gunslinger!)
Maybe in the morning – remember, the police is no respecter of persons –
Male or female, it may be dusk (surely, the police is your friend)
Or at noontime, your teeth in the dust, staple meal of the dead
(The earth is a dish and the dish will be cold)
The United Nations warns that Nigerians are liable to be buried young.
Strings are useful and the bullet will be sudden (skulls can only smile)
Bolt your windows, bar the doors, the shadow follows always behind you
The young and the old, cop-kill walking, the United Nations warns
(You are always young enough) The blows will be hard and the lead will be hot
You can run but the next town is always Samarra
The United Nations warns (surely, Nigerians are liable to be strangled dead)
At noon or at midnight, in a cell at dawn (remember, the police is your friend)
The United Nations warns that Nigerians are liable to be murdered young.
_________
Oxbow Lakes
The piercing carelessness of the children’s laughter
seduces us. Should we now abandon our
well-used telescopes for the screening veil?
Should the stylites*descend
to solutes for the bazaar –
a vat of thronging mindlessness.
(For the oxbows – exiled veering sharply
from the headlong torrents blindly surging –
in still aloofness gaze cyclops-eyed
at a denuded sky: our eyes now saline
with the dredged-up secrets of the earth.)
And, siblings of Galileo that we are
can dare spell ‘pope’ with a puny ‘p’,
with hilarious tears can pun the vulgate
to The Vulgar
but then are
fragile clingers to a Frisbee earth,
with a shattering monolith for cosmos;
are fleeting yearners for the childhood haziness
and the headlong plunge –
Eden of the unplucked apple.
And still, from the street, the gay
laughter of children in play.
Rotimi Babatunde is an accomplished poet, playwright, and fiction writer, currently on the Caine Prize shortlist for his short story “Bombay Republic“. __________
[…] week’s issue features poetry by Caine-prize shortlisted writer Rotimi Babatunde, a long short fiction on 419 by writer Efe Okogu, and a quasi-faction piece by Sylva Nze Ifedigbo […]
I enjoyed reading these, well done!