Oh! You are Home
written by: Annah Atane
I am, defying my eyes of sleep
standing at the edge of a shank sunk into the ground,
Outside our house
Waiting for my father to come home
a brigade of crickets slew the breeze, I closed my eyes
I whistled
& nostalgia held hands with the darkness behind my eyelids
to remind me of each verse of Juvenile Times
“Daddy O-yo-o” is what we scream when we see father miles away
His hands were always like a balance scale filled with two things; surprise and anticipation
we may, or not have asked for
We defied our eyes of sleep, cause
We knew we had rewards, for just being
Those times have passed and faded away like sprinkled dust
Now he honks, and my sister and I draw ourselves into a gloom of silence, annoyed, passive
who would open the gate? First?
As children we kept the happy welcome, our optimism was unmatched,
I am scouring the earth like a fowl finding that sanguinity, but it exists only in a glen smidge of my neighbor’s children
They seem to be the happiest in the world. hopeful than all of us
I remember
They planted broken, trampled branches of agbalumo leaves back into the soil
Of course, you do remember
they pursued no regime
never worried or stressed over growth, time, or fray
they just had lethal hope.
Call it ignorance, puerile
they live in a different world & it is a cheerful one
- Oh! You are Home - March 30, 2024
